By U Sudhakar Reddy With humans in vading and capturing their habitats to erect their highrises, big cats are entering towns and cities as if to demand their due.
Panthers once roamed in the Hitec city area of Madhapur, but they lost their habitat after the scrub jungle was levelled for erecting a cyber city.
Similarly, scrub jungles in the fringes of Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry and other urban areas were also destroyed for construction.
These scrub jungles were the connecting links (marginal habitats) between the thick forest and human habitations. For long years, the borders were inviolate.
But that is no longer the case. The destruction of its habitat, lack of prey and water scarcity has forced many panthers to stray into cities and towns in recent times.
In 2008, there were 22 incidents of panthers straying into cities, towns and villages. There were only 13 such incidents in 2006.
Panthers have been spotted everywhere — near temples, railway stations, prisons, dumping yards, residential colonies and industrial units.
Big cats were spotted many times in the the ONGC base complex spread over around 200 acres in Rajahmundry. Some of them were caught and released in Maredumilli forests of Rampachodavaram agency.
On March 25, another panther was spotted at the Central Prison in Rajahmundry and it was trapped in a bathroom by a resident of Lalitanagar Colony, a few kilometres away from the prison.
In Visakapatnam, panthers were sighted at Kapulauppada and Marikavalasa on the Vizag-Bhimili Road close to the beach between November 2007 and January 2008.
Another panther which strayed into fields near Samalkota was killed by panic-stricken villagers armed with sticks and sharp weapons before forest officials arrived.
“They were all young panthers in search of a new territory after losing their habitat,” said a forest official.
The situation has become so alarming that top officials of the wildlife department have asked all divisional forest officers to keep traps ready to deal with emergencies.
Officials in Visakhapatnam, Nizamabad and East Godavari districts were asked to be ready with three to four traps at all times.
Lower rung employees are also being trained on how to trap and tranqulise a panther. “We have given training to beat officers and section officers on how to catch the cats,” said the deputy conservator of forest (Wild Life), Mr B. Varaprasad.
“We are spending Rs 50 lakh on contingency measures.” Forest officials could rescue only eight of the pan thers which entered human habitations.
There have been rare instances of panthers attack ing humans. In Vishakapatnam, a panther attacked a female worker and dragged her to distance before she was rescued by other labourers near the IT Park at Kapulaupada on January 24. Another labourer was also attacked by a panther two weeks earlier in the same spot.
Panthers once roamed in the Hitec city area of Madhapur, but they lost their habitat after the scrub jungle was levelled for erecting a cyber city.
Similarly, scrub jungles in the fringes of Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry and other urban areas were also destroyed for construction.
These scrub jungles were the connecting links (marginal habitats) between the thick forest and human habitations. For long years, the borders were inviolate.
But that is no longer the case. The destruction of its habitat, lack of prey and water scarcity has forced many panthers to stray into cities and towns in recent times.
In 2008, there were 22 incidents of panthers straying into cities, towns and villages. There were only 13 such incidents in 2006.
Panthers have been spotted everywhere — near temples, railway stations, prisons, dumping yards, residential colonies and industrial units.
Big cats were spotted many times in the the ONGC base complex spread over around 200 acres in Rajahmundry. Some of them were caught and released in Maredumilli forests of Rampachodavaram agency.
On March 25, another panther was spotted at the Central Prison in Rajahmundry and it was trapped in a bathroom by a resident of Lalitanagar Colony, a few kilometres away from the prison.
In Visakapatnam, panthers were sighted at Kapulauppada and Marikavalasa on the Vizag-Bhimili Road close to the beach between November 2007 and January 2008.
Another panther which strayed into fields near Samalkota was killed by panic-stricken villagers armed with sticks and sharp weapons before forest officials arrived.
“They were all young panthers in search of a new territory after losing their habitat,” said a forest official.
The situation has become so alarming that top officials of the wildlife department have asked all divisional forest officers to keep traps ready to deal with emergencies.
Officials in Visakhapatnam, Nizamabad and East Godavari districts were asked to be ready with three to four traps at all times.
Lower rung employees are also being trained on how to trap and tranqulise a panther. “We have given training to beat officers and section officers on how to catch the cats,” said the deputy conservator of forest (Wild Life), Mr B. Varaprasad.
“We are spending Rs 50 lakh on contingency measures.” Forest officials could rescue only eight of the pan thers which entered human habitations.
There have been rare instances of panthers attack ing humans. In Vishakapatnam, a panther attacked a female worker and dragged her to distance before she was rescued by other labourers near the IT Park at Kapulaupada on January 24. Another labourer was also attacked by a panther two weeks earlier in the same spot.
(With Patnaik and Sampath)
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