Unruly estate youth are at fault not leopards
I refer to an article in your January 14 issue, on the apparent leopard attack in Hatton. I live on a private estate near the Katabool water falls, close to Hatton, where there are many sightings of leopards. This is in the vicinity of the area where a woman died in an “apparent” attack by a leopard.
Most often the leopards are harassed by the estate youth. Last year a leopard with two cubs was sighted above our property and the men tried to capture the cubs with nets and poles. But fortunately the mother was able to move the cubs before the mob returned to capture them. The youth every year set fire around the caves and dry areas around our property, and this causes distress to the leopards. During the dry season from January to end March fires rage in the tea plantations, but there is no way to catch the culprits who start the fires. Even now as I write this, intoxicated estate youth are setting fires all around, the JEDB estate.
Women pluckers who have unwittingly disturbed leopards resting under tea bushes have through fear fallen and injured themselves, but never been attacked by these peaceful animals.
The leopards have plenty of food, domestic dogs, goats, deer and wildboar to eat. So they are not that desperate to kill human beings, unless provoked. My husband and I have lived in this area for 30 years and the maximum harm the leopards have done is take away domestic dogs, and leave carcasses of deer and wild boar in the fields.
The men talk boldly about killing a leopard and taking its claws and teeth for charms and burying the carcass. In another instance, a leopard had walked through the field, whilst the women were plucking the tea, picked up a domestic dog that had frozen on the spot through fear and walked away with it, without attacking any of the women.
Sending teams to educate the estate youth on how to live peacefully with these animals is essential and perhaps a reward system to inform on any perpetrators with a phone number to call, with a reliable person at the other end to answer and take action, may be the way forward.