Constant harping on the Man-Animal Conflict has literally landed a leopard on my doorstep. I live on the banks of the Jehlum in the Shivpora locality of Srinagar, the largest city of Kashmir. The Jehlum makes an almost complete loop around it and only a small strip of land connects Shivpora to the adjoining foothills of the Zabarvan Range. This strip is traversed by the the NH1, the main highway that runs through the Kashmir valley. The whole area is a high-security zone surrounded by high walls, barricades and barbed wire. Somehow a leopard has managed to overcome the obstacles presented by the barricades, the highway and the river to reach Shivpora.



The local residents experience of predatory animals has been limited so far to the occasional glimpse of a mongoose or the nocturnal howling of the jackals that inhabit the Dhar Bagh-Shaheen Bagh complex [X] where the leopard is believed to have taken up residence. This area has no roads or houses but orchards, thorn bushes, marshland and extensive patches of woodland along the river-bank provide perfect cover for the leopard in an area measuring arond 500 kanals. [approx 60 acres] Mass hysteria is developing among the residents of Shivpora, maybe with good reason. As per the Wikipedia article leopards can subsist on small prey and are less dependent on large prey and are less likely to turn to man-eating than either lions or tigers. However, leopards might be attracted to human settlements by livestock or pets, especially dogs, and they may resort to the eating of humans should conditions demand it, and no other food is available.

The most secretive and elusive of the large carnivores, the leopard is also the most cunning. It is the strongest climber of the large cats and capable of killing prey larger than itself. Its success as a ruthless hunter owes is due to its opportunistic hunting behavior, its adaptability to habitats, and its non-specialised diet. A leopard will eat any creature it can hunt down and catch - from small beetles to large cattle. Local lore relates a marked preference to kill and eat dogs - which is why the linked news article mentions a half-eaten dog carcass as proof of the presence of a leopard.

I hope the wildlife authorities capture and relocate the leopard before any infortunate incident provides us with one more statistic in the Man-Animal Conflict.

News Link:
Leopard 'infiltrates' into high security Shivpora

Wikipedia Article:
The Leopard

Wild Kashmir brings you freely downloadable maps of Dachigam National Park and other protected forest areas courtesy of Yawar Ali of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens and Majid Farooq, RS-GIS expert. Click the thumbnails to download the maps.










Yawar Ali and Majid Farooq at the International Conference on Hangul Conservation 2009


In other news, the man-animal conflict in Kashmir is slowly but surely developing into an imminent catastrophe. Here is an update:
Man-Animal Conflict in Kashmir

Yawar Ali Masoodi is a young lawyer deeply commited to environmental issues in Kashmir. He has compiled a list of serious environmental threats that he feels need to be addressed immediately :

1. Limestone Mining/ Pollution from cement production in Greater Dachigam [Khrew, Khanmoh etc.]
2. Gypsum Mining in Choolan, Dara, Gawashir, Jabadar, Niloosa, Bhagna and Bimyar at Uri [Limber Wildlife Sanctuary]
3. Sheep Breeding Farm at Dachigam and Daksum
4. Unplanned Tourism activities in Aru Wildlife Sanctuary
5. Unplanned Tourism activities in Baltal-Thajwas Wildlife Sanctuary
6. Unplanned Tourism activities in Gulmarg Wildlife Sanctuary
7. Encroachment of wetlands in particular Narkara And Hokersar

Meanwhile top officials confirm that little progress is being made even on well-publicised environmental issues:

Human intervention threatens Kashmiri Hangul

Govt, industries encroach upon forests

The beautification drive launched by the government along the banks of the Jehlum river has the makings of another eco-disaster. This drive was meant to provide a much needed facelift to the river as it flowed through the city. There is no doubt that the river presents a much more attractive picture in the civil lines area but like most quick-fixes this beauty may come at a high price. Dozens of chinars in the ambit of the beautification drive are dying. Nobody seems to have told the powers-that-be that river banks form an extensive eco-system in themselves with unique plant and animal populations. Aquatic birds like waders and kingfishers thrive here, as do dragonflies and a wide variety of aquatic plants. The chinars around the Kashmir Arts Emporium and Radio Kashmir complexes are home to the largest surviving heronry in Srinagar. Otters are probably already extinct in kashmir, as readers may remember from an earlier post.

You cannot just dig up all the banks and cut down all the trees and replace them with walls of stone and cultivated grass. But that is exactly what is happening. Such environmental disasters due to lack of foresight have occurred earlier, most notably when the conversion of the Mar canal to a metalled road choked Srinagar's main water-bodies, and when the diversion of the Doodh Ganga river into the Hokersar Game Reserve condemned it to a slow death by siltation.

I have a suggestion - a green belt of chinars, willows and similar trees along the embankments, along with creation of some sandbanks and reed-beds can provide the necessary habitat for aquatic wildlife. In other other states projects are assessed for environment impact assessment. Since I am not an expert we need specialists in this field to get involved in increasing the eco-friendliness of the Jehlum River Project. Any takers?

One of the great pleasures of birding is sighting a new species which has not been recorded earlier in the region.

Earlier this week I observed and photographed a Rosy Starling in the Zabarvan foothills. It is quite a rare sighting since the Rosy Starling is classified as a "not common passage migrant" in Kashmir on the basis of individual records.


In March 2007, I photographed this Chaffinch on the banks of the Dal Lake. It is the first time ever that this species has been reported from Kashmir.


Unlike its cousins, the Plumbeous and White-capped Redstarts, which are quite common near water, the Common Redstart has never been reported from Kashmir. I photographed this bird in May 2006 in a willow on the banks of the Jehlum at Shivpora. The photo caused a fair bit of interest and was studied by the foremost avifauna experts. However, due to the sub-optimal quality of the photograph, the verdict was inconclusive.