Mumbai:
Over the past decade, at least four leopards have been poached every week in India as a part of the illegal trade. This alarming statistic is part of a study on Illegal Trade in Leopard Parts in India by TRAFFIC India, the wildlife trade monitoring network. The study is a clear indication of the crisis we are facing.
Rashid Raza, part of the team that worked on the report says, "We were quite surprised that despite all this evidence being there, leopards are being killed and traded illegally in such massive numbers and with such regularity. It is so surprising that (the) public, media or government have not really absorbed the fact. (It is) Because the leopard also enters into conflict (with humans) and that seems to occupy the public imagination and public space, this particular aspect (on illegal trade and killing) has fallen into our collective blind spot. It is there in front of us but it hasn't registered."
An analysis of the 420 seizures recorded during 2001-2010 period estimates that body parts of at least 1127 leopards were seized from illegal trade. Delhi emerged as the most important hub of such trade. It is followed by the bordering areas of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.
Rashid Raza adds, "Delhi- NCR is an important part of trade of leopard parts. The pattern is quite clear. It appears that our forest areas are the areas of harvest... and our larger cities are places of stockpiling and trade. It is clear where the animals are killed and where they are largely traded."
James Compton, Senior Program Director Asia, TRAFFIC told NDTV, "With this report, it's an assembly of 10 years' worth of data and what it has given us is an insight into how significant the trade in leopard and leopard body parts are in India. It's given us spatial and temporal distribution. And it's looked at concentration of illegal activity based on rates of seizures. How does that relate with wildlife trade? I think it's fair to say that India with its rich biodiversity is cursed also for being a source in the wildlife trade in the region and globally as well. While we saw a peak of tiger product seizures five years ago, we've not seen so many tiger products in the trade observably now. It's gone very much underground. And the leopard can be viewed as an indicator of a wider dynamic."
And perhaps that's where the real push is needed.
Today, many across the country may easily be able to identify "panthera tigris" as the scientific name of tiger, but not many may know that leopard's scientific name is "panthera pardus". One reason is that tigers have been the focus of major conservation campaigns, while the leopards have been associated more with the animal's constant conflict with humans, usually the subject of media stories, though the need for leopard conservation perhaps doesn't get the same focus.
Dr Divyabhanusinh Chavda, President of WWF says, "It has come out for the first time in this report of TRAFFIC and we are certainly at a crisis point. If we don't arrest it now we may well be in a situation where the tigers are, where in 1972 the crisis was felt and something was done about it. Similarly, if this is not seen as a crisis, we may land up in a similar situation....for this wonderful cat which is far more wonderfully distributed in India and far more adaptable than tigers or lions. It's very adaptable. Its natural habitat is always under pressure; it's reduced, degraded, and thus they move out of their natural habitat. Therefore they come into more conflict with humans than a tiger or lion would. If it's being driven out of its home, there is bound to be conflict. It's about time we woke up and did something about protecting this animal."
Like a wildlife activist pointed out, it is perhaps time to give an image makeover to the leopard. Shift the spotted animal for the focus of conflict and ferocity to the spotlight of conservation.