THEY AIM TO SAVE

They rein in man-eaters and pull the trigger as a last option. This tough job has earned them admirers and critics. Meet India’s authorised hunters

Rage drove Lakhpat Singh Rawat to his first kill. It was 2001. A leopard, believed to have killed 12 people, mostly children, had created terror in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district. The sighting of a big cat in markets, on rooftops and highways is far more common now—it leaves people terrified, but it is not considered unusual. Back then, when the Chamoli man-eater allegedly killed a dozen people, leaving behind mauled bodies, it was very much out of the ordinary. A trained marksman, Rawat possessed a licensed gun and had won the district-level shooting competition. Frequent killings, attributed to the leopard, left him worried for his life and those of his children. “It could attack anyone anywhere at any time. Villagers used to take turns to sleep,” says 55-year-old Rawat, district education officer in Garsain town.

Rawat recalls that the Uttarakhand forest department had picked four shooters from other states to catch the leopard, and if the need arose, kill it. When they failed, Rawat told the department that he should be given a chance. The Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) issued him a permit. Rawat traced pugmarks, analysed corpses to look for bite marks, spoke to families who had lost someone to a wild animal, and camped in the jungle. It took him eight months to kill the leopard.

Almost two decades and 55 kills later, Rawat remains one of the most sought after authorised hunters who assist the state government in tackling, and when required, eliminating, problem animals.

The man-animal conflict is at an all-time high in India (see box human animal conflict). In many cases, the forest department is able to contain the fury of people in affected areas by caging, tranquilising, or rehabilitating the animal. In others, hunters such as Lakhpat Rawat are roped in.

Most of the authorised hunters were into shooting— some were experienced wildlife hunters —before they began tackling animals for the government (hunting for sport was banned in 1972). Every passing year, the government’s dependence on them increases in spite of the fact that their involvement in wildlife operations regularly comes under scrutiny.

“Private hunters are called in when we have tried every other resort including tranquilising. When there is a public outcry over killings by big cats, they play an important role in confidence building,” says Parag Dhakate, conservator of forests, western circle, Uttarakhand.

KILLERS OR SAVIOURS?

Authorised shooters think of their role as no less than that of conservationists. Rawat says that for every animal he kills, he indirectly saves many others. “If I don’t rescue or eliminate the man-eater, people will kill any leopard or tiger they spot. They cannot distinguish between a troublesome beast and a normal one. However, we are always perceived as killers rather than saviours,” he says.

Prashant Singh, a Dehradun-based dentist, got himself registered with the Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh forest departments after trophy hunting in Africa and Argentina for a decade. Singh says that he has never felt elated after killing a wild animal. But when he meets affected families, he finds motivation. “People don’t understand that the shooter is not a triggerhappy, half-crazy devil but a person who understands animal behaviour and does so out of his passion for saving human lives,” says Singh. “We have created man-eaters. We could not manage our forests because of which we find animals in our living spaces. Three of the leopards that I killed had empty stomachs. They are desperate when they kill humans. We have left them with no option,” he adds.

THANKLESS PURSUIT

In hunting, the challenge is not confined to tracing the animal. Pauri (Uttarakhand) based hunter Joy Hukil shows a video shot in Devprayag — around 100 people can be seen standing around a caged leopard. “They wanted me to kill it. I was convinced that it was not a man-eater. It was quite a task to persuade villagers that we are not supposed to kill every animal we come across,” he says. Hukil has killed 31 leopards and one tiger. “Galat baagh maar diya aapne” (you have killed the wrong animal) is a response he often gets from people. “There are people who get to see a big cat for a fraction of a second, based on which they create an image in their minds. When the animal is killed, they match it with what they have seen or think they have seen,” says Hukil. “It is only after a month or two, when there are no more casualties, that they start to believe that the problem animal was eliminated,” he adds.

EASY WAY OUT

The idea of hiring private hunters to check cases of man-animal conflict is increasingly becoming controversial. Sandeep K Tiwari, wildlife biologist and conservationists, Wildlife Trust of India, says, “Involving private shooters raises multi-

WHAT TO MAKE OF OUR EVER-INCREASING ENCOUNTERS WITH LEOPARDS

haphazard ways causing even more problems. Thousands of leopards haunt human settlements in an effort to feed on dogs or sheep and goats. Hundreds of humans are mauled, injured or killed each year. How on earth do we mitigate this conflict so that man and leopard can live more peacefully?

Firstly, we must accept the fact that leopards and people will live together right across India. There is no magic wand that will change this. Our only intervention is to make this relationship more peaceful so that the conflict between both is eased. There are more than 30 states and union territories that have to prioritise their interventions in order to do this. On my suggestion, the Rajasthan government started Project Leopard two years ago with a view to solve some of these problems. There are now eight designated Project Leopard reserves in Rajasthan including two around Udaipur and Jaipur with the primary mission of resolving conflict. Every state in India must start their Project Leopard areas to focus on this remarkable species.

There are some amazing examples to learn from, like the Jawai area in Rajasthan where tourism and conservation work hand in hand supported fully by local communi- ties and without forest department’s interference. What the state governments must do is to create mobile rescue units, at least 1000 across India, to rush to the aid of both people and leopards in times of need. Science and good field research will play a critical role in making the work of these units effective and useful. Prompt compensation when leopards do damage will be essential in harmonising the relationship between the two.

Another vital strategy that must come into play with this new focus is the ability to restock some of our empty forest tracts with prey-food for the leopard. Doing this requires breeding farms for deer and outsourced to non governmental bodies. Australia breeds hundreds of thousands of Sambar deer. Surely, we can have our own breeding farms for spotted deer and so much more. The future lies in thinking out of the box and changing redundant policy.

State of the art protection is vital and finances can be raised by intelligent leopard tourism. Where there is a will there is a way. If such measures are not brought in the leopard in India is doomed to die.