Leopard in a tea-cup: A study of leopard habitat-use and human-leopard interactions in north-eastern India

Leopard in a tea-cup: A study of leopard habitat-use and human-leopard interactions in north-eastern India

Abstract

There is increasing evidence of the importance of multi-use landscapes for the conservation of large carnivores. However, when carnivore ranges overlap with high density of humans, there are often serious conservation challenges. This is especially true in countries like India where loss of peoples' lives and property to large wildlife are not uncommon. The leopard is a large felid that is widespread in India, often sharing landscapes with high human densities. In order to understand the ecology of leopards in a human use landscape and the nature of human-leopard interactions, we studied (i) the spatial and temporal distribution and the characteristics of leopard attacks on people, (ii) the spatial variability in the pattern of habitat use by the leopard, and (iii) the spatial relationship between attack locations and habitat use by leopards. The study site, located in northern West Bengal, India, is a densely populated mixed-use landscape of six hundred thirty square kilometers, comprising of forests, tea plantations, agriculture fields, and human settlements. A total of one hundred seventy-one leopard attacks on humans were reported between January two thousand nine and March two thousand sixteen, most of which occurred within the tea-gardens. None of the attacks was fatal. We found significant spatial clustering of locations of leopard attacks on humans. However, most of the attacks were restricted to certain tea estates and occurred mostly between January and May. Analysis of habitat use by leopards showed that the probability of use of areas with more ground vegetation cover was high while that of areas with high density of buildings was low. However, locations of leopard attacks on people did not coincide with areas that showed a higher probability of use by leopards. This indicates that an increased use of an area by leopards, by itself, does not necessarily imply an increase in attacks on people. The spatial and temporal clustering of attack locations allowed us to use this information to prioritize areas to focus mitigation activities in order reduce negative encounters between people and leopards in this landscape which has had a long history of conflict.

Introduction

Protected Areas are vital for the conservation of biodiversity but cover less than twelve percent of the global land area and are often small in size relative to adjoining non-protected land use matrices. The small size of most protected areas makes it difficult to conserve large carnivores that are wide ranging, thus highlighting the importance of multi-use landscapes for their conservation. There is increasing evidence of large carnivore presence in rural and semi-urban landscapes in many parts of the world that creates both opportunities and challenges for conservation. Currently, the ecological understanding of large carnivores in many countries is largely limited to protected areas and is therefore insufficient to allow us to plan management strategies to deal with their presence in human dominated landscapes.

India still retains most of its large carnivore species including the four large cats, the tiger, the lion, the snow leopard, and the common leopard despite having an extremely high human population density. All four species share space with humans in parts of their ranges and this can potentially lead to conflict, which, if unresolved, may seriously undermine conservation goals and impact human lives and livelihoods.

Of the four large cats in India, the leopard is the most adaptable with a very wide distribution, occupying a diverse range of habitat types varying from pristine protected forests to edges of urban landscapes. Their adaptability has created many situations for spatial overlap with humans across much of their range in India. Therefore, livestock losses to leopards are widespread and attacks on humans are not uncommon in some areas. The reasons for attack on humans by large carnivores in some areas but not others are not well known, although historically, hunters have put forward theories that include old age or injury as a predisposition to man-eating. Previous studies of attacks on humans by large carnivores have provided information on the temporal and spatial patterns of attacks and use correlations between different variables and attack locations. However, understanding the reasons for the attack is difficult given that they are rare and unpredictable events. In one study, a strong correlation was found between translocation of leopards and attacks on people near the release sites indicating that such interventions might inadvertently exacerbate the severity of conflict in a densely populated country like India. Further, it is a common assumption among the public and media that attacks by leopards on people will occur wherever leopards and humans co-occur.

In this paper, we investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of attacks on humans by leopards in a landscape predominated by tea gardens interspersed with forests, farms, and rural residences. We assessed the spatial habitat-use patterns of the leopards to understand the ecology of the species in a forest-production landscape mosaic. We also assessed if a higher probability of habitat use by leopards correlates with more frequent attacks on people, and we examined the nature of attacks on people to identify patterns that could be used to formulate management interventions to reduce future incidents in this region.