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A study carried out throughout Karnataka signifies that the coverage tips introduced out by Government of India to mitigate human-leopard conflict and discourage translocation of the animal has had little impression on the bottom.
The variety of leopards captured per 30 days increased greater than threefold (from 1.5 to 4.6) after the human-leopard coverage tips have been introduced out in 2011. Similarly, there was a threefold enhance in the variety of leopards translocated per 30 days (from 1 to three.5).
Sanjay Gubbi of the Nature Conservation Foundation, who led the study in the State, stated the rules for human-leopard conflict administration have been introduced out in April 2011 to cut back conflict with leopards, discourage their translocation, and recommend improved methods of dealing with emergency conflict conditions.
Mr. Gubbi, the lead creator of the paper, stated that in Karnataka, 357 leopards have been in conflict conditions and have been captured between 2009 and 2016, and the ultimate final result was obtainable in the case of 314 leopards. Of these, 268 have been translocated in contravention of the spirit of the coverage, 34 have been captured and saved in captivity, whereas 12 died through the seize.
These findings have been revealed in a paper titled ‘Policy to on-ground action: Evaluating a conflict policy guideline for leopards in India’ in the Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy. The co-authors of the paper are Aparna Kolekar and Vijaya Kumara.
Taking Karnataka as a case study, the researchers analysed pre- and post-guidelines leopard captures, causes for the captures, and the end result for the captured leopards.
The numbers
The study discovered that out of 357 leopards captured throughout 23 of the 30 districts in the State throughout 2009-16, a majority (79%) occurred in Mysuru, Udupi, Hassan, Tumakuru, Ramanagaram, Ballari, Koppal, and Mandya districts.
Of the 268 leopards translocated, many have been moved to protected areas (59.7%) and a few to reserved/State/minor forests (29.8%). The highest variety of translocations occurred into Bandipur Tiger Reserve (22.5%), adopted by Nagarahole Tiger Reserve (20.6%) and Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (15%).
The study indicated that of the 80 leopards that have been translocated to reserved/State/minor forests, most releases have been to Kemphole Reserved Forest (16.2%), adopted by Devarayanadurga State Forest (7.5%) and Bukkapatna State Forest (5%).
Though eight causes have been attributed to seize and translocation of leopards, the principle justification was livestock depredation (38.1%), stated Mr. Gubbi. The different causes included leopards rescued from snares and wells (15.7%), anxiousness induced owing to leopard sightings in human habitations (13.7%), and leopards coming into human dwellings (10.9%). Human accidents (4.5%) and human deaths (2%) shaped a small a part of the explanation for leopard captures and translocation.
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