'Shoot Them Or Shoot Us': 500 Leopards Are Driving an Election in Maharashtra

With 500 leopards in just one region, conflicts with humans are driving Junnar's politics for Maharashtra elections.

(Photo: The Quinr)

Video Editors: Nitin Bisht, Kriti Saxena

"The boy just yelled 'baba' after the leopard pounced and then he was being dragged. I started yelling and everybody woke up. We couldn't find them for a long time since it was dark," said Ramdas Jadhav, as he stood at the spot where his grandson, Rupesh, was killed right before him.

On 25 September, nine-year-old Rupesh had stepped out of his house to attend to nature's call at 5:00 am when a leopard pounced at him from the neighbouring farm. Rupesh's body was found about an hour later by forest officials.

Rupesh's name was added to the list of seven casualties due to leopard attacks that have been reported in Maharashtra's Junnar since March this year.

A three-year-old attacked by a leopard has been living with one eye and 300 stitches on the head for 23 years, a female farmer tackled a leopard with a shovel — all these are stories from just Junnar taluka in Pune district.

A beautiful tourist destination and the birthplace of Chhatrapati Shivaji, a recent government survey showed that there are 500 leopards across just four talukas - Junnar, Ambegaon, Khed Alandi, and Shirur.

These 500 leopards are now deciding the election in the Junnar assembly.

Living With the Leopards

You speak to anyone in Junnar, they have a leopard encounter story to tell.

"From a child to the oldest man, everyone has encountered a leopard here. We are used them now but we are also scared," said Vignesh, a local, who narrated how he was chased by a leopard once.

"My friend and I saw it in the rear-view mirror of my bike while it started chasing me and we rushed to a friend's house. We set off fire crackers to scare it away," he said. Keeping firecrackers in the house to scare leopards is a common practice.

Most pet dogs here have customised collars with thorns, farmers go to the farms in 'leopard protection gears', and people have been advised to remain indoors after sunset.

At least 230 villages across the four talukas have been notified to be extremely prone to leopard attacks.

District Collector Suhas Divase last week officially declared Junnar taluka as a leopard emergency natural disaster zone.

'Leopards Multiplying Like Stray Dogs'

About three decades ago, five dams came up in the Junnar and Ambegaon region, which encroached on massive forest lands, leading to the migration of most wild animals. But a few of the big cats stayed back.

With the new dams, irrigation boomed in Junnar, and so did sugarcane cultivation. Till sugarcane fully grows, the crop is dense, tall, and requires the least human intervention for almost a year. The sugarcane farms eventually became perfect hiding spots for female leopards and their cubs.

"Whenever farmers grow sugarcane and water the crops, there are bends of water inside these farms. The leopards drink that water. The farmers and shepherds have their cattle, which is easy prey for them. The leopards got ample food and water in the eastern belt, so they just settled here," said Round Forest Officer Manisha Kale.

"Moreover, a conducive environment and no threat to the cubs from other wild animals doubled the survival rate of leopard cubs. So basically, if a leopard has four cubs, there would be four new fully grown leopards in the region in the next 18 months," Kale explained.

That is how, in the past two decades, the leopard population in Junnar has risen gradually and so has their conflict with human beings.

Survivors Recount Horrors

One of the first major attacks happened 23 years ago when 3-year-old Kaustubh Batwal was playing outside his house. He was attacked and dragged by a leopard to the field next to his house. His father ran after them and hurled a knife injuring the leopard. It took Kaustubh multiple surgeries, 300 stitches in the head, and losing one eye to recover. A mechanical engineer today, Kaustubh is finding it difficult to get a job.

"This eye had popped out. Mine was the first attack here, so we did not get much help from the government either. I am a mechanical engineer, but the companies say I will have issues working with them. Some companies directly reject me after getting to know of my condition," he said.

Sunita Bankar's story is that of survival. In January this year, a leopard attacked her while she was working in her own farm. Today, she is known in the entire region as the woman who wrestled a fully-grown leopard with a shovel.

"I was watering the crops. It jumped on my neck while I bent to water the crops. I thought it would drag me to the farm any moment now. I decided to retaliate. I had the shovel in my hand. There was a sharp edge on my shovel that hit its stomach after which it fled to the sugarcane field. After it left, I had a major anxiety attack. I was frozen, I could not speak, my blood pressure was high," Bankar said.

Leopards Drive Narratives of Junnar's Politics

Over the past few years, the forest department has been laying traps following sightings and attacks, with local volunteers and villagers also assisting in several rescue operations. Awareness camps are held in schools and panchayats to train people to protect themselves.

The captured leopards are released in far off areas and the more problematic ones get lodged at the Manikdoh Rescue Center in Junnar, which currently houses over 40 captured and rescued leopards.

But the steep rise in conflicts with leopards has also worsened the conflicts with the forest department. With a spate of attacks, most are convinced that the focus is more on reacting to incidents rather than preventing them. 

"The forest chief must take responsibility. They hustle after a casualty, set up traps, and make tall claims. What is someone going to do if they lose the breadwinner? If they lose their only child, what will Rs 25 lakh do? This can't achieve results. The only ideal result is that the casualties must stop," said former MLA Sharad Sonawane.

Kale explained that when it is a human casualty, people are not ina state to listen to reason.

"People are not in a state to understand when a human casualty takes place. There is immense pressure from the people on the department. They say either kill the leopards or kill us. At times, people also thrash our staff," Kale said.

The elections have picked momentum, and so has the issue of leopards in Junnar.

The Mahayuti government has approved a Rs 80 crore project for a leopard safari in Junnar's Ambegaon to segregate the leopards and humans. The Manikdoh Rescue Centre's area is to be extended by 10 hectares to accommodate more leopards.

But the loudest demand is to sterilise leopards as an immediate measure.

"The demands of people are valid. But the forest department has limitations. A prooposal for sterlisation of leopards has been sent to the Centre and central zoo authorities but it has been rejected because the leopard is a Schedule I categorised animal. Till that changes, leopards cannot be sterlised," said Junnar MLA Atul Benke.

"Second, the safari project approved here will house only 12 leopards. That project is not to curb leopard population but to boost tourism. Our goal is to curb population. We have more cages now. We are doing everything we can," Benke said.

In the meantime, many locals are voluntarily working towards brokering peace and also risking their lives during rescue operations along with those from the forest department.

"When a leopard attacks people, a child, peopla are angry. We have to pacify them. If a leopard falls in a well or meets with an accident, we rescue it. Nobody pays us to do this. We do it as social work," said Kiran Wajage who volunteers on operations of the forest department.

In the meantime, the locals may have learnt to live with the big cats, but are now actively seeking more protection

"We need leopards for the future generations. But the government must now do something to protect us too," Bankar said.