Telly Talk: Leopard spotting
Don’t watch this if you’re squeamish. If you do watch it and you’re squeamish but just loves the big cats, at least look away from the first few minutes of the opening sequence when these ferocious big cats are captured in a montage of human vs leopard aggression which, let’s face it, doesn’t show anybody in a good light. After that point, watch, listen and learn as our host Rom Whitaker (lived in India for 50 years and counting, not that he’s showing off) travels around to find out more about why there is now a leopard in his back yard, and why it attacked two of his dogs and killed one of them. These are not easy questions, people.
Journeying to Rajasthan – apparently the best spot to watch wild leopards – Rom considers with his fellow leopard-spotter why it is that these ones will attack farm animals but pretty much leave humans alone. It’s worth saying that this is something the local goat herd family take as read, locking their precious animals safe inside their small shack while they sleep outside on the ground. You know, where the massive leopards are. But, apart from the odd hut break-in from a conniving cat on the look-out for grub for her cubs, this seems to work. Co-existence-ish.
“The local leopard-hunter is the school maths teacher”
Not quite the same story in Uttarakhand, a state further to the North with the highest concentration of man-eater leopards in the country, with about 70 people taken every year by the felines. Rom arrives ten days after a five-year-old boy has been taken and killed by one of the predatory big cats. Speaking to the family, re-treading the steps of the invader, it sends chills down your spine as my Western sensibilities urge to both eliminate and preserve the danger. Yes it’s a beautiful creature, but could I, in all conscience, give that as a reason not to hunt it down and take that danger of death away from the other children in the village? The local leopard-hunter is the school maths teacher, who applied for a licence to hunt after nine of his students had been killed by the big cats. In the time it took for him to be granted the licence three more had died. Looking at the photographs of him with his kills they could be trophies were it not for the subtitled history he gives us of each leopard’s crimes. Individually. Each leopard and who it was that they killed. I told you not to watch it if you were squeamish. Thankfully Rom decides that we don’t need to see the other photograph album filled up with images of the remains of big cat victims. Even knowing it exists doesn’t particularly sit well with me.
Of course, Rom also goes to a man-eater sanctuary and to Maharashtra where he meets a very clever lady doctor who happens to be the first person studying leopards in a human environment.
There are no easy answers here, just very carefully structured questions. We are led to believe that the development of man-eating leopards where before there were none is, in fact, man’s fault. With an increase in poaching and even relocation comes an increase in leopard/human conflict and aggression. The older ones are killed, the adolescents come to the fore with less of a fear and the danger increases. It’s an answer. It’s most likely Rom’s answer. It can’t be the only answer.
Finally, in Mumbai, India’s biggest city and the fourth biggest metropolis in the world, we even encounter urban leopards. Like our foxes but bigger. Much bigger. There are fatalities here, so complacency cannot be afforded – but neither can the wrong move, we’re reminded. We have our stories of seagulls attacking small dogs and foxes looking into cots, but watching this really makes our blessings worth counting. Squeamish-maleamish, this is not always easy viewing but it’s good to step off of our isle once in a while and look further afield. Thanks Rom.
Leopards: 21st Century Cats – Natural World Special, BBC2, Friday 17 May 2013
