Leopard Attacks In India - Can People Learn To Live With Leopards? @BBC

#India, #HumanWildlifeConflict, #Leopard, #BBCNaturalWorld

Facing A Patchy Future - in the survival game alongside humans

As a 10yr old, I remember leopard thoughts filling my mind while cycling through a low-hills area where I used to roam, 3-4km from home, for the thrill of freewheeling down the narrow bendy road at great speed. A leopard was caught there around that time. More surprisingly, in 2010, another leopard was caught (http://bit.ly/Lprd-KNR2010) next to the beach, another of my old cycling haunts, 8km away at Azhikode - which I re-discovered as the best location for morning beach runs, in recent years! Never thought they could reach there through densely populated countryside (From 2011 India census, the average population density of Kannur district towards the north of Kerala is 852 people per sq. km). But this latest documentary broadcast in the UK last week, gives the insights, why such things can happen, with the highly adaptable predator.  

Can people learn to live with such Animals?, is the most relevant question posed here. "To a large extent, Man-Eating Leopards are a man-made problem", said Dr Vidya Atreya who's been doing her research on leopards, around the sugar cane fields on the plains of Maharashtra!- another place you wouldn't normally expect to see leopards.

This film focusing on Leopard conflicts in India, is presented by the iconic wildlife conservationist of India, Romulus Whitaker. With footages from Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and sugarcane fields of Maharashtra, and Mumbai, where 'a stray dog a week' is enough for a leopard!.

Whitaker started off on leopard trail, after his dog was taken by one, and another of his dogs attacked, from his home on the far outskirts of Chennai in Kanchipuram dist, where he lives with his wildlife writer partner Janaki Lenin.

@BBC - Leopards 21st Century Cats :

About 85 years ago, The Man-Eater of Rudraprayag from Kumaon hills was eventually shot dead by Jim Corbett, for it was said to have killed 125 people; many pilgrims en route to Gangotri. It became famous through his book Man-Eaters of Kumaon. Even today, in this area of himalayan foothills in Uttarakhand, about 70 people are killed by leopards every year-  highest fatality rate from leopard attacks in India.
Surprisingly, the next highest fatality rate is seen in the sugarcane fields of Maharashtra, right in the densely settled plains, a 'purely human landscape' away from jungles!- the leopards there have never seen a forest in their life!!. 100 of them were captured in 3 years, to be dumped in forests upto 150miles away, only to see many return in a matter of weeks.

In Kumaon, where Lakpak, a school teacher took it upon himself to rid the nearby hills of man-eaters after 9 of his students disappeared, falling prey to leopards. Since then, in the last 10years, he has taken out 40 man-eaters with his gun!..and the story continues..

Intriguingly, in places like Rajasthan there aren't much conflicts with people- they are even 'friendly'!, other than taking their cattle.

 The increased poaching to supply body parts to SE Asia is considered one of the reasons causing increased conflicts in many places, like Kumaon.

"If an ordinary leopard sees a man, it will go away. If a man-eater sees you, it will crouch down nearby, ready to attack you. Normal leopard fear humans. Man-eaters overcome their fear"!, says Lakpak.

But the biggest surprise for me was from Mumbai- India's biggest city with 20m people, and the fourth largest metropolis in the world, has the highest density of wild leopards anywhere on earth!! 

Had read about frequent conflicts there when my workplace was just outside Sanjay Gandhi National Park boundary.. Yet, this information is almost Unbelievable!! - As is their Adaptability!

More Program info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnnh

A leopard slinks through village fields, in Maharashtra

The 'Convicted' Man-Eater that can't be released back into the wild,
for it has developed a taste for humans and have taken many, in Maharashtra. It's been kept for some years at the enclosure run by 'Wildlife SOS', a wildlife rescue&rehabilitation NGO, which works to help reduce conflicts and builds awareness for people to live alongside wildlife.
They want to avoid creating such enclosures and sad stories for future- for people & animals.

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On a related note, here is another gripping documentary of conflicts -

The Last Man-eater (Killer Tigers of India) @National Geographic [45min].
(I did not quite like the slightly sensationalised style of presentation, yet it is insightful and extraordinary.)

Why did the Tigers of the Sunderbans acquire a taste for humans, and still are the last of the tigers in the world to regularly kill humans? 

Even after much research, No one knows for sure! 

Yet, these Indians revere Nature and the Tiger, even under severe survival conditions!

Sundarbans is a dense maize of tidal mangrove forest swamps habitat - world's largest mangrove forests (>10,000km²)

ARGUMENTS WITH GANDHI: talk @LSE by Dr Ramachandra Guha

"ARGUMENTS WITH GANDHI": Audio podcast of eminent historian Dr Ramachandra Guha's talk @  The London School Of Economics
last week, 26/Oct. Laced with wit and interesting anecdotes.. 



More about the event:
http://www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/videoAndAudio/channels/publicLecturesAndEvents/player.aspx?id=1212

"At once a freedom fighter, social reformer and environmental thinker, Mahatma Gandhi's ideas were original and controversial. Though much criticised, Gandhi's life and work continue to illuminate the major social and political debates of our time."

Guha's recent books include:
India after Gandhi: The history of the world's largest democracy (2007), 
Makers of Modern India (2010)

RamGuha is also an environmental historian.
I've bought one of his books 'Ecology and Equity' (co-written with the Ecologist Madhav Gadgil from IISc)  while in B'lore 10years ago.

ARYANS (They are NOT A "RACE") &The origins of Vedic Hindu Culture - From 'History of India' by Romila Thapar

From 'The History of Early India' -(From the Origins to AD1300) by minent Indian historian Romila Thapar.

(She is Emeritus Prof in History @JNU,NewDelhi.. A scholar Who is well respected in the West and in India.

 with honourary doctorates from Oxford,Chicago, Paris etc.. and was visiting prof @Cornell..)

She very skillfully weaves together pieces from historical/textual/linguistic/archeological

 "evidences" and articulates her analysis and interpretations- which are vibrantly explained with contexts!!,

and argues in a very reasonable way, and very readable for the non-academic..

She also makes it clear wherever applicable, what CANNOT be ascertained because of lack of any evidence.

The introduction to the book itself is Brilliant in general, giving a good perspective on history and interpretation: A para from it-

[The starting point in the history of a society, has to be familiar with its
historiography-- the history of historical interpretations itself.
 This provides the recognition of the intellectual context of history, instead of preference for just a narration of events. It is NOT "just a narration of events", but by familiarising the reader with the
context wherever applicable, "encourages a more sensitive understanding of the past".
The awareness of historiography has contributed substantially to the change in understanding Indian history over the last half-century.

]

 

In the introductions, it elaborates on the "inaccurate" usage of the term "The Aryans" to refer to "a race".. 

(If you'd like to read the relevant pages from the book, Please click on the images to enlarge )

From the intro: "To refer to 'the Aryans' as a race is therefore inaccurate. The racial identities of speakers of Indo-Aryan languages are not known"

"Indo-Aryans spread gradually over Northern India, incorporating some elements of Austro-Asiatic & Dravidian.Indo-Aryan is in fact a language lablel indicating a speech-group of Indo-European family, and is NOT a racial term. To refer to 'The Aryans' as a race is therefore inaccurate. The racial identities of the speakers of the Indo-Aryan languages are NOT KNOWN."

..

In the chapter detailing history from around 1200~600 BC, it talks about the migration of the people from areas around Iran to settle in Northern India.

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The rise of the Indo-Aryan language group, after the decline of the Indus Civilization by the mid of the 2nd millennium BC..

Migration into Northern India from around Iran/Persia. This makes me think of one interesting aspect: That.. the first wave of "migrations" from west Asia in roughly around 1500 BC brought Indo-Aryan language/old form of Sanskrit to India.. which, mixed with indigenous influences gave rise to Hindu Culture..The second wave of "invasions"from west Asia around 1500AD by the Mughals spread the Muslim Culture widely..

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THE CONTEXT OF THE RIG VEDA
(If you'd like to read the relevant pages from the book, Please click on the images to enlarge )
From the section, "The Context of the Rig-Veda" [Chapter: TOWARDS CHIEFDOMS & KINGDOMS, from The History of Early India, by Romila Thapar ]

The connection between Iran and north India on the other hand are close. The language of the Avesta [The text of Zoroastrianism] and Indo-Aryan language were cognates, descended from the same ancestral language. The date of the Avesta has been controversial, but a mid-2nd millennium BC is now accepted. The linguistic relationship between the 2 includes not just words, but also concepts. The interchangeability between 'h' and 's' is one of the differences, but there is a consistency in this change such as haoma, daha, hepta hindu, ahura in Avestan, and soma, dasa, sapta sindhu, asura in Rig-Vedic Sanskrit. In terms of religious concepts the attributes of gods are often reversed. Thus Indra is demonic in the Avesta, as are daevas (devas or gods in Sanskrit) and Ahura/asura emerges as the highest diety. 

This has led to the theory that originally the Old Iranian and Indo-Aryan speakers were a single group but dissensions led to their splitting up. It was then that the Indo-Aryan speakers living in the Indo-Iranian border lands and the Haraxvati (Sarasvati) area of Afghanistan gradually migrated to the Indus plain, bringing with them their language, rituals and social customs, to settle as agro-pasteralists in the sapta-sindhu area, as described in the Rig-Veda, later merging with the local population.

This reconstruction tallies upto a point with the archaeological evidence. If the presence of Indo-Aryan speakers is indicated by the presence of horse-- which was central to both action and ritual in the Rig-Veda-- then it dates to the early 2nd millennium BC in the subcontinent, the horse being virtually absent in the Mature Harappan period (2500-1700BC). The lack of bones and representations (of horse, at Indus Civilisation sites) points to its being an unfamiliar animal.

(The horse and chariot, introduced from central Asia, became common in west Asia in the 2nd millennium BC, suggesting a correlation between the arrival of the horses and of the Indo-Aryan speaking people into India from west Asia. )

Recently, (GOING AGAINST EVIDENCES, and overlooking the data from from linguistics and NOT showing an analytical understanding of the archaeological evidences,) some have argued that the date of the Rig-Veda should be taken back to Harappan or even pre-Harappan  times, and that its authors be equated with the creators of the Indus Civilization-- This theory would then support that the authors of Rig-Veda were indigenous to northern India, and also the Indo-Aryan language.

But artefacts and monuments of the Harappa culture are NOT described in the Rig-Veda; Concepts implicit in organizing the Harappan/Indus Civilization system of urban settlements have NO counterparts in the Rig-Veda. Many scholars have described what they regard as the essential characteristics of Harappan urbanism, which they have found to be ABSENT in the Rig-Veda : Cities with grid-pattern in town plan, extensive mud-brick platforms as base for large structures, monumental buildings,complex fortifications, elaborate drainage system, use of mud-bricks and fire-bricks in buildings, granaries and warehouses, a tank for rituals, and remains associated with extensive craft activity related to manufacturing of copper ingots, etched carnelian beads, the cutting of steatite seals, terracotta female figurines thought to be godesses, and suchlike.

Also, in the Rig-Veda, there is NO CONCEPTUAL FAMILIARITY with the use of these objects and structures. The Rig-Veda lacks a sense of civic life founded on the functioning of planned and fortified cities of Indus Civilization. It does not refer to the non kin labour, or even slave labour, or to such labour being organized for building urban structures. THere are NO references to different facets or items of an exchange system, such as centres of craft production, complex and graded weights and measures, forms of packaging and transportation, or priorities associated with categories of exchange. Rituals are NOT performed at permanent ritual locations such a s water tanks or buildings. TERRA COTTA FIGURINES ARE ALIEN AND THE FERTILITY  CULT MEETS WITH STRONG DISAPPROVAL. FIRE ALTARS described in the Rig-Veda are of a shape and size NOT identifiable at Harappan sites as altars. There is no familiarity from mythology with the notion of an animal such as the unicorn, nor even its supposed approximation in the rhinoceros, the most frequently depicted animal on the Harappan seals. Tha animal central to the Rig-Veda, the horse, is absent on Harappan seals. There is NO mention of seals or a script in the Rig-Veda; SCULPTURED REPRESENTATION OF THE HUMAN BODY SEEM UNKNOWN.

The geography of the Rig-Veda is limited to the northerly Indus Plain-- the sapta-sindhu area -- and is unfamiliar with the main Indus Civilization areas of lower Sind, Kutch and Gujarat, and with the ports nad hinterlands along the Persian Gulf that were significatnt to Harappan maritime trade."

#India, #IndianHistory, #EarlyIndia, #Hinduism, #Vedas, #RigVeda, #RomilaThapar, #AncientPersia, #Zoroastrianism, #Zarathustra