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    In India, Leopards vs. Humans Attacks, Death Toll Rising

    By Sherry Tomfeld | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Mon, Jan 9, 2012
    This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.
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    COMMENTARY | India shares its country with leopards, which is both a blessing and a curse. Another leopard-on-human attack has taken place, and left one man dead, and four injured, including a man that was scalped by the cat. The leopard strolled into Gauhati located in southeast India and started his rampage of killing. The Belfast Telegraph has a picture of the cat attacking a man. The leopard was finally tranquilized and taken away, to be released away from highly populated areas.

    Leopard attacks are not rare in India. The big cats have been forced to move when timbers are cleared. Their natural habitat is quickly disappearing, taking with it the leopard's food sources. The Wildlife Protection Society of India gives poaching statistics on leopards. They report that 355 cats were killed in 2011. The report says that they multiply, by 10, the number of illegally gotten reported leopards. This is because so many are poached and not recorded.

    In a recent case of leopard-on-human attacks, the The Hindu reported a five-year old girl was attacked and killed on December 25. In July 2011, six people were attacked by a large leopard. It was killed when attempts to tranquilize it failed. The actual leopard attack was caught on camera, and shown on News Sky.

    In a country that does not have a market for leopard skins and bones, the threat to leopards is coming from the international community. For example, Asian medicine has uses for leopard parts. Skins still are sought after by people around the world. All of this ensures that poachers will continue to hunt the leopards until they are extinct.

    Within India, the problem of chopping down timbers where the leopards live, continues. The human population continues to grow and spread out. This leads to confrontations between leopards and humans. They are deadly encounters for both. The people of India try to capture, tranquilize, and move the cats when they can. When they lose this battle, they kill the cat as a last resort.

    The war in India between leopards and humans is the world's war too. Cut off the market and cut off the need to poach the cats. Once these beautiful animals are extinct, they cannot be brought back.

     

    2 comments

    • vucja
      vucja  •  Sacramento, California  •  4 mths ago
      My thinking exactly, but making it happen is another thing. This will sound crazy, but maybe the Asians so dependent on leopard parts should start raising them like cows. At least then perhaps they would not be extinct totally, just in the wild, which is coming. Some experts predict extinction of the big cats in the wild within about 20 years. I know it is another culture, but I find using leopard and/or other animals parts for medicine primitive and reprehensible.

      Perhaps India could consider having a reserve where animals are raised just to feed the leopards, away from populated areas as much as possible. Also the population of humans needs to be restricted from taking over all the cat-inhabited areas. Perhaps with pressures such as this, combined with serious plans for alternative income sources for the people, and also a enforced universal birth control plan, scenarios suich as this would not be happening. SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE ON THE PLANET. AND WILD ANIMALS CANNOT EVEN EXIST.
    • Jane Winstead
      Jane Winstead  •  San Francisco, California  •  4 mths ago
      Thanks for sharing. Very interesting.
     Post a comment
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