by Rudolph.A.Furtado
(Mumbai)
Mumbai National Park - photo of white tiger by Darrel Ronald (Flickr)
There was a televised documentary of the perils and dangers with comparisons of the "Man-Eating leopards of Mumbai National Park" and of a fatal Cougar attack in California on sports mountain bikers.
Mumbai National park is the World's only natural wooded forests to contain leopards living in its environment, this island of forests totally encircled by one of the World's most populated city's. Similarly in California, mountain lions exist amongst the human trekkers and mountain bikers and occasionally as happened the two collided with disastrous results.
The attacks by leopards on the human population living on its periphery in Mumbai due to lack of animal prey and also human encroachment into the forests resulted in most of the leopards being trapped and translocated.
The result has been that in 2009 there are no reports of leopard attacks on humans in Mumbai's national park periphery but there are also few "Leopard sightings" indicating that their population in the park has been decimated or better their natural animal prey base has increased whilst human encroachment into the forests reduced.
Ultimately, in any city or country, California or Mumbai, it's difficult for wild cats and humans to co-exist in harmony as human population encroaches into animal territory and the only solution could be "National Parks" like in Mumbai, but, with proper "Animal Management".
Rudolph.A.Furtado
