When one thinks of Mumbai, or Bombay as it is popularly still remembered as, we think of a metropolis, we think of a concrete jungle by the sea. Known as the financial capital of India, Mumbai stands as one of the fastest developing cities. The tall skyscrapers and the glamor of Bollywood brings in a wave of migrants every year, with housing in Mumbai becoming a bigger nuisance as each day passes. Mumbai currently stands as one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with 25,000 people per square km. Amongst the hustle-bustle, one almost might feel disconnected from nature and wildlife. Despite this, another conservation miracle is unfolding and that is the story of Mumbai’s leopards.
The Leopards of Mumbai
When considering all this, it becomes hard to imagine that Mumbai could be home to a plethora of flora and fauna, let alone a big cat like the leopard. But that is the case, with Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park, an urban national park nestled right in the heart of the city, hosting as many as 35 leopards, with many undocumented leopards moving through wildlife corridors.
This makes Mumbai a city not only with one of the highest human population densities, but also leopard population density with 22 leopards per 100 square km (Surve 2015). With rapid urbanization and the intertwining of human and animal territories, it becomes essential to understand the almost uncanny coexistence between Mumbai’s residents, humans and leopards, to maintain it in the future.
Credits: Steve Winter
Examining human-leopard interactions
Looking at leopards, they are classified as ‘vulnerable’ in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. Exact population statistics have been hard to calculate, given the animal’s widespread range of over 70 countries. Over the past century, India has seen a severe fall of nearly 75-90% in leopard population, driven directly or indirectly by human interference. Despite all these factors, leopards have been able to adapt to new situations fairly well. A 2022 study suggests that there is a high leopard density (22-26 leopards per 100 sq.km) on the fringes of Sanjay Gandhi National Park despite very heavy human presence (over 20,000 people per sq.km).
A 2021 joint report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) puts India near the top on the list of countries most affected by human-animal conflict. The major and most obvious factors behind this is India being the most populated country in the world, and still boasting a very healthy population of tigers, leopards, lions, elephants, one horned rhino among other species (Gross et al, 2021).
When looking at Maharashtra, as many as 54 people in 2017 to 88 people in 2020 were victims of human-animal conflict. Tigers and leopards were responsible for the majority of these incidents. Much of these incidents highlight the increasing spatial overlap between human and animal territories, driven mainly by urbanization and industrial development. Large cats require bigger prey populations and more area to roam, which causes them to roam into human territories, further adding to the problem.
Competing Territories
The impact of urban encroachment on available wildlife habitat and even leopard behaviour has been profound. In Mumbai, encroachment currently stands as one of the biggest threats to the park, as not only is there a decrease in available land but, such settlements restrict the spaces that act as animal movement corridors. Severe habitat fragmentation of leopards as well as their prey in addition to the changing lifestyle and daily practices of the slum dwellers encroaching SGNP further exacerbates the problem. With heavy human movement comes domesticated animals like dogs, as well as large amounts of garbage.
The leopard, being an extremely adaptive feline, has quickly adjusted to disruptions to its movement and prey availability by shifting to easier prey in the form of animals that flock at open garbage sites. With a mixed diet of both what’s readily available in the park, like spotted deer, they also find their way onto the streets of the city, where they can find more supplements to their diet in the form of pigs, chickens, goats, rats and all the other such animals that tend to go hand-in-hand with human settlements.
Tensions at Aarey Milk Colony
Because of extreme overlap in territories, combined with the leopard’s adaptability to Mumbai’s landscape, sightings of leopards in Aarey Milk Colony are very common. The Aarey Milk Colony borders the southern wall of the national park, allowing for free and unrestricted movement of wildlife to-and-from.
Aarey Milk Colony initially came into being in 1949, when 1300 hectares of land from the Aarey forest was allocated to Mumbai’s Dairy Development Board to find a solution to Mumbai’s expensive and poor quality milk. As a result, all of the city’s cattle was systematically shifted to the colony. Present day, there are over 16,000 cattle being reared in the 32 cattle farms of Aarey Milk Colony.
It is estimated that at any time, there exist 5-6 leopards within Aarey Milk Colony. With increasing leopard and human population, incidents of conflicts are rising. There have been 9 cases that have been reported between the months of August and October 2021 alone. With 2 of the attacks having been on children, tension amongst the locals has increased, who currently demand either the relocation, or monitoring of all leopards in Aarey at all times.
What lies ahead for Mumbai’s leopards?
Conventional methods used in conservation management have proven to be ineffective in dealing with Mumbai’s leopard situation. The first strategy employed in the case of a leopard sighting is to set up a baited trap and when the animal is captured, to relocate it to another site or to place it in a zoo. Continuous release of leoaprds to the same few sites has led to conflict at release sites as well. Furthermore, responding to ‘foreign’ places, the leopards have a homing instinct which causes them to try and walk back to their original territory. This has also caused conflict in locations near the release site.
The case of Mumbai has proved that traditional conservation strategies will not prove to be effective. In such a case, environmentalists and conservations alike all preach the same message – one of peaceful coexistence and sustainable development. The residents of Mumbai must become aware about the cat and its behavior. Unnecessary panic over a mere sighting will only cause greater risk to both, the animal and the humans. For people living around the forest, it is suggested they not roam around in the dark alone and without a flashlight.
Leopards are shy creatures, and noises from a group or a light from the flashlight deters it from crossing paths with humans. Most importantly, cornering a leopard with a crowd is one of the worst ideas there is, yet something so many urban communities resort to. This only aggravates an animal that’s merely trying to escape. A large number of NGOs, like Vanshakti and Mumbaikars for SGNP have been putting in significant efforts to educate the residents of Mumbai about leopard habits and behavior.
Conclusion
It might be time to realize that if the lion is king of the jungle because of its ferociousness, then the leopard is fast becoming the king of the urban jungles due to its extreme adaptability. It is now up to humans to change their ways, for in the era of rapid urbanization and industrialisation, human and animal territories are bound to overlap more and more.
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Written by: Udit Murarka