Leopards have expertly adapted to living in Mumbai, and people are slowly following suit.
“Leopards are extremely adaptive animals,” announces Nikit Surve, a research consultant with WCS India who has worked on the leopards of SGNP since 2015. It is the beginning of a training session, and as eager volunteers scramble around a laptop at the SGNP field station, he briefs them on the project: the correct way of setting up a camera trap, inferring information from a camera trap photograph, interesting behaviour to watch out for, and noting data during a transect walk (survey done in a scientific manner). Volunteer training session in SGNP. © Nikit Surve/WCS India In SGNP, several volunteers cite how a simple fascination with the leopard led them to sign up for the project, but how being in the field taught them about wildlife and conservation biology as well as forest management, the role of the forest department in managing the forest, and of course, the nuances of animal behaviour and ecology. Hrishikesh Wagh, a volunteer recalls spending his vacations with his grandparents in the district of Junnar, which is another human-use landscape where leopards are prevalent. “I grew up on stories of leopards in this landscape: stories of conflict and coexistence, of incidents of sighting the leopard and sometimes facing the loss of cattle due to them. Volunteering in SGNP has given me different perspectives on leopards– about their intelligence and adaptiveness, how their territories overlap… how there is so much more to know about this animal than we currently do.” Volunteer being taught to set up camera traps. © Vaishali Rawat/WCS India
Keren Pereira, a Bachelor of Science graduate participating in the project mentions, “Being here also made me aware of how a forest is managed: the importance of conservation and awareness regarding the human-leopard conflict, the role that the forest department and especially hardworking forest guards play.”
Together, the department and citizens are helping change people's perspective of a vilified animal. While Mumbai’s wild leopards have expertly adapted to survive in the bustling metropolis, its people are slowly learning to share spaces with this wild feline.
Written by Vaishali Rawat
Photo credits: Rujan Sarkar (Cover)