Lost at Home

 

 

“Chinar jal gaye hain/ bas reh gaye hain minar/yeh Kashmir ki kabr hai/bas ab qayamat ka hai intezaar.”

There is a lot that has been burnt down in the Valley of Kashmir over the last decade or two. Homes, hearts, trust and faith, to name a few. So what’s the big deal about stoning a bear and then burning it alive as the terrified animal helplessly submits to its terrible fate.

In the month of December, in a village in Srinagar, a group of angry villagers surrounded and burnt a Himalayan Black Bear to death after it had strayed into the village. What was even more poignant than the animal being burnt alive was the terrible fall of man! In that moment of cruel passion, normal, everyday people who’ve lived in harmony with nature for generations, driven by fear and frustration, surrendered to an emotion that is not far removed from the inflamed passions that drove mobs to the slaughter of innocents on the trains that crossed the borders of a divided nation in 1947, and it was that same cruel blood lust that swept across Gujarat in 2002. The blame though, ought to lie not at their bullet riddled doors but on the circumstances that have served to dehumanise and de-sensitise a hitherto warm, friendly and tolerant population. The reaction of the people, though despicable, was understandable. Caught in the unrelenting psychological and literal cross-fire between government forces and insurgents, perhaps the last trace of tolerance and compassion had been squeezed out of their tortured lives. With the forests overrun by insurgents in hiding and the armed forces in pursuit, the local wildlife too has been disturbed and may have thus strayed into human habitation. The situation wasn’t helped by the fact that leopards and black bears from these forests were often guilty of attacks on villagers. In Achabal, south Kashmir for instance, a leopard killed four children in January this year.

The root of the problem perhaps lies elsewhere. Wildlife experts believe that easy food in the form of human bodies scattered along the Line of Control (LOC) is a major reason behind leopards turning man-eater in the border areas of Kashmir. The theory is uncannily similar to the reasons attributed to one of the greatest man-eating accounts in history. The man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag, was shot by Jim Corbett in 1925, but not before it had accounted for 125 lives. The leopard turned man-eater following an epidemic during which it fed on countless human bodies that were dumped in the ravines since there were far too many to bodies to burn. Experts from Wildlife Institute of India, who visited Kashmir lately to ascertain the causes of human-animal conflict, support this theory while adding that factors like fencing the LoC, human interference and loss of food base intensify the conflict.

Is it in the nature of the wild animals to attack humans? Perhaps not. Tariq Ahmad, a pharmaceutical dealer from Srinagar, who had a close encounter with a leopard while on his way to Gulmarg this winter recounts, “A leopard was crossing the road as we drove round a curve some two hundred metres past Tangmarg. I stopped my car, with a jerk. He looked calm, noticed us, then looked around and moved on.” Encouraged, Tariq stepped out of the car to see the leopard disappear in the snow covered hills. No leopard attack on humans was reported in the area despite the wild animal stepping so close to human habitation. Yet numbers of people dying of leopard and bear attacks, mount. Official records state that since July 2006, at least eight people have lost their lives to attacks by bears and leopards, while 52 others have been injured till date in two south Kashmir districts of Anantnag and Pulwama. Figures from two north Kashmir districts, Kupwara and Baramulla, are even more disappointing. Official records put the total number of deaths in the last three years at 15 while nine leopards and 10 bears have also been killed.

Since the State’s Forest Minister announced two months ago that the Wildlife Department would compensate those killed or injured by wild animals, many new cases of death due to leopard and bear attacks have been reported. While human deaths are reported for compensation, animal deaths go unaccounted. You would never know how many leopards might have been killed by landmines alone.

Committed conservationists like Abdul Rashid Wani, former Principal Conservator of Forests, Jammu and Kashmir, have analysed that three main reasons lie at the centre of this conflict. One factor that pushes bears and leopards into villages is loss of natural food base in the jungle, coupled with availability of plenty at the fringes where humans live. Kartick Satyanaraya, Co-founder Wildlife SOS, reiterates that the situation is compounded when “desperate and hungry bears enter fruit orchards and walnut plantations in the forest periphery, thus coming into conflict with humans”. Secondly, the intolerance and lack of knowledge about the behaviour of wild animals among people who live close by the forest. But the most important is the security situation in the State that on one hand has made the presence of security forces in the jungle unavoidable and on the other hand limited the movement of wild animals by fencing the LoC and by planting landmines on both the sides of this fence. Wild animals do not understand political borders but the three metre high fencing along 742 kilometers of the LoC is restricting the movement of these animals. Brigadier (Retd) V. Anand says, “If removal of the fencing along the LoC is what it takes to reduce man-animal conflicts and the resultant loss of either life, then so be it. We believe that villagers along the LoC will always inform us of infiltrators.” A R Wani says “Animals have a cruising range. In case of a leopard, it is between 25 and 40 square kilometers. When you limit the range, it moves out of its ecological niche. The result will be that the animal will either come in conflict with humans or die of stress.” Supporting his argument, Wani quotes the example of protected areas of wildlife in Kashmir, particularly in the two central Kashmir districts – Srinagar and Budgam. “Has even a single bear or leopard attack been reported from Dachigam National Park? No! The animal gets satisfactory supply of food there, so it does not need to attack,” says Wani. However, the situation is entirely different in territorial forest areas of north and south Kashmir where large scale deforestation destroyed the natural habitat of wild animals, particularly bears and leopards. The forest department seems ill-equipped to handle the situation. A long-term solution is inextricably intertwined with the political situation in the State. An interim solution has been provided by NGOs like Wildlife SOS who are training villagers in conjunction with local authorities about how to avoid conflict situations with wild animals and capturing problematic ones. Kashmir has endured long enough. It is time the festering wound was given the healing touch so that this paradise on earth could reclaim its glory and its denizens could finally live happily and in harmony, at least for a while. Amen!