Although the incidents of people encountering leopards in the upcountry areas have suddenly increased in recent times, the situation has been controlled by the implementation of a number of programmes, stated the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC).
In upcountry areas like Hatton, there are regular reports of people getting injured due to leopard attacks and leopards breaking into houses, particularly those in the tea estates.
When contacted by The Daily Morning to inquire about the issue, the Director General (DG) of the DWC, Chandana Sooriyabandara said that the habitats of the leopards living in the upcountry areas have been largely fragmented due to tea plantations. “Leopards in these areas share habitats with people. For example, when people are plucking tea leaves in tea estates, leopards stay in other places but come to those plantations and near the houses at night. This is why the incidents of people being attacked by leopards and them breaking into houses occur.”
He also said that the number of such incidents has been increasing in the last few months, but that the situation has been brought under control through several programmes implemented by the DWC as of now. “These incidents were going up in the recent past. At that time, we launched an awareness programme involving the people and the officials. In addition, the officials of the department were provided with a standard operating procedure (SOP) on how to deal with this matter. A system was also prepared to communicate with the tea plantations. With all those measures, the issue has been brought under control now.”
A committee appointed by the Ministry of Wildlife and Forest Resources Conservation had recently made 25 recommendations in its final report regarding the protection of the mountain leopard population. The committee had drawn the attention of the relevant authorities regarding the effective implementation, monitoring, follow-up, and updating of the relevant circular regarding the rescue of endangered animals including leopards, and recommended to the ministry to take measures to remove the backward opinion of the villagers regarding the protection of such animals. It had further mentioned that a human-leopard conflict in the mountainous areas should not be allowed to occur.