Guidelines issued by Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh last month to deal with human-animal conflict clearly assigned crowd control to police and civic authorities and animal rescue responsibilities to forest officials. Conservationists say crowd management is a basic and crucial aspect of wildlife rescue. However, eyewitnesses say this was clearly lacking in the Uran case, where an angry mob of 1000-odd people chased and hurled stones at the leopard.
"If the crowd is not managed well, it could cause serious harm to humans as well as the animal, just like it happened in this case," said Vidya Atreya, a Pune-based wildlife researcher, who has closely studied leopard behavior in Maharashtra.
Five persons were injured in the incident and were rushed to various hospitals in Uran, Panvel and Mumbai by the locals. The ministry guidelines also state the area should be cordoned off and an ambulance kept ready for medical emergencies. "None of the above happened. Neither the civic administration nor police could control the mob that was chasing the animal and making a mess of the rescue operation," said Nikhil Bhopale, programme officer, Bombay Natural History Society, who was present at the site. "We had a tough time getting the leopard into the vehicle, the angry mob that surrounded us made our job even more difficult," said Anwar Ahmed, deputy conservator of forests, Alibuag division. Read the full report here.
Source: Simit Bhagat, TNN, Mumbai.
