Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law

The author heads to the Pauri Garhwal district of India. Unlike the North Bengal area, where leopard attacks are usually surprise encounters, Pauri Garhwal has a large number of predatory leopard attacks. One theory about the frequency of deadly attacks is that during past pandemics, bodies were disposed of in a way that made them more available for leopard scavenging. Others theorize that the areas without high attack numbers had more hunting in the past, so leopards were more cautious around humans. However, Dipanjan Naha, a researcher with the Wildlife Institute of India, points out that Pauri Garhwal is a hilly, terraced farming area. Such a landscape is difficult to farm, so villagers moved away in great numbers. This allowed the terraces to grow over with scrubland, terrain favored by leopards that puts them closer to people’s homes. The livestock that graze there are easy prey, as are young children, who make up the majority of victims (80).

In India, the chief wildlife warden of a state will not allow a leopard to be shot unless it has killed “three or more humans” (82). Translocation also does not work here; the leopards don’t lose their wariness of humans during their transit, and they become more aggressive in the new location from the stress of the move.