Forest dept staff crunch hits leopard conflict management

Pune: An acute manpower shortage in the forest department, especially in the territory of Solapur, has led to concerns about handling of human-wildlife conflict in the region.One of the major forms of conflict observed in Maharashtra has been between leopards and humans, involving several deaths in the last few years.From 1,690 leopards in 2018 to 1,985 to 2022, the state ranks second in the country in terms of leopard population. According to a report from the Union environment ministry titled ‘Status of leopards in India, 2022’, released on Feb 29, there has been a stark increase in the leopard population of the state, especially in tiger reserves like Bor, Tadoba-Andhari, Navegaon-Nagzira, Pench and Melghat. Regions such as Chandrapur, Brahmapuri and Kolhapur have also seen a marked rise in leopard density.The data emphasizes that human-leopard conflict remains a major worry for forest officers. The report added that at least 75% of the leopard population roams outside protected areas and the major threat to them is from conflict with humans and poaching.Officials said that to mitigate and reduce response time in cases of such situations, a good rescue team with forest officers is necessary alongside wildlife training for forest guards, which are both currently in shortage for the department, especially in Solapur.“We are afraid that despite the increasing population and migration of leopards across the state — including in and around Pune — our response time will be very slow due to a manpower crunch. There is also a possibility of major conflicts between meso predators (hyenas, wolves and humans) in the Solapur region. We have appealed for more vacancies to be filled, but it will take time,” said chief conservator of forests, NR Praveen.In a recent recruitment drive for the forest department’s Pune circle (Pune and Solapur districts), 67 forest guards were employed. However, despite this addition, the department has only 380 posts filled out for Pune district, which they said is not enough to guard all areas under their jurisdiction.In Solapur, matters are far worse. For 30,000 hectares of forest land, only 35 forest guards have been appointed. The allotment has been done according to available forest land, said deputy conservator of forests (Solapur), Dhairyasheel Patil. “Due to the forest patches being scattered in different parts of the districts, the number of guards available is very less. It is concerning in cases of conflict, and we definitely need more guards,” he said.Solapur district now also has a developed Ujani canal, around which sugarcane farming has progressed tremendously. Forest officials said the leopard population in these areas has increased along with grassland species of hyenas, wolves and other animals.“Due to migration during sugarcane cutting season, there is a lot of conflict. Out of 11 tehsils in Solapur, four have a good number of leopards in them, including Madha, Karmala, Pandharpur and Malshiras. We have set up rescue teams in Pandharpur and one more site for reducing response time, but it is not enough,” said Patil.In 2020, a leopard killed at least eight people in Solapur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar districts. To mitigate this, the department had to shoot down the cat. “After that incident, we have been very vigilant. We have helped people become more comfortable with the idea of wildlife and when any conflict situation arises, we have local teams and NGOs help us work at the spot. Leopards were around before us — we need to co-exist,” said Patil.Recently, the district also witnessed a case of brutality by four to five people against a hyena, when they abused the animal and were later jailed for the same. “We took stern action after reaching the spot. Due to social media, we do get informed early on during some form of an attack. However, with forest guards divided into wildlife and other departments, only a few are left to take care of such conflicts. We have appealed at least thrice now and are hoping we get more posts filled. It should be done according to geographic region, not in relation to the forest land,” said Patil.