A surprise visit, a wake up call!

With shrinking forests, leopards have been straying into urban areas for some time now. So it wasn’t  the animal’s presence in a private school in Kundalahalli Varthur on Sunday that made news so much as the botched up operation to rescue it. Three people, including Sanjay Gubbi, an environmentalist, were injured before the animal was finally caught alive at the end of the operation that started at 2:30 pm and went on until around 6:30 pm, unleashing mayhem in the area.

“It was madness. There were around 200 people  gathered near the school with media crew climbing up every wall or tree possible to get visuals of the leopard. There was no need for Mr. Sanjay Gubbi to come to the spot, but he arrived there as he wanted to instruct the media crew to stay away from the school, and not disturb the rescue operation,” said a wildlife rescue volunteer.

Even worse, local people burst crackers to shoo away the leopard. A few even brought their dogs near the school hoping they could help drive away the leopard with their barking.

The BBMP wildlife rescue volunteers rushed to the school as early as 6 a.m. after they were told of the leopard being spotted at the school, but forest department officials did not arrive before noon, according to Mr Sharath, Chief Wildlife Warden, BBMP forest cell. Shockingly, neither seemed equipped to handle the situation as both  the forest department and the BBMP wildlife officers did not have a leopard trapping net when they arrived on the spot to rescue the animal.

“We had to use silly equipment provided to us by the school like golf-ball and volleyball nets to trap the leopard as we did not have proper equipment,” revealed a volunteer. “How can a leopard be secured with a golf-ball or volleyball net, which the animal can easily rip open?” asked Mr. Sharath, pointing out that the BBMP forest cell should ideally have an in-house veterinary doctor and a disaster management team with proper equipment for carrying out such an operation.  “Fortunately we were able to rescue the  animal with whatever we had,” he added.

“In 2006, equipment was sanctioned by the BBMP commissioner. Again it was re-sanctioned by the next commissioner, and even now the file is  lying at the BBMP office with no progress. The government is not interested in using the taxpayers money for such neccessities. A Rapid Action Team to deal with such situations was also proposed long ago, but nothing has been done about it,” the officer regretted.

Noting that  Bengaluru is growing fast and  the authorities are blatantly allowing buildings to come up near forest buffer zones, environmentalists say the government needs to wise up to the fact and take the required precautions.

“Mumbai is a living example with a huge apartment complex right next to a National Park. But people still live there. Similarly in Bengaluru when there is man-animal conflict, the city should be well prepared to handle it without casualties, whether human or animal.  We need a dedicated and well-equipped disaster management cell, which can be activated in situations like these,” they emphasised .

If the forest department and BBMP did not rise to the occasion, neither did the police. In situations like the one on Sunday involving huge crowds, section 144  automatically comes into play and the police are supposed to shoo away the people to allow the rescuers to do their job, say those in the know. “The police need to shoo away curious onlookers who cannot resist making fun, screaming at the animal, or attempting to help, which is a big hindrance to the operation,” says an expert, strongly advocating that the police need to work hand in hand with the forest department to tackle such situations.

Gubbi stable, recovering
Mr Sanjay Gubbi, a renowned conservationist, has been admitted to a private hospital on Bannerghatta Road and his condition is said to be stable. Mr Gubbi sustained injuries to this right radius, near the elbow, where his bone has been chipped by the canines of the leopard and there are deep wounds on his waist and hip area, probably caused by the claws of the animal. Two other injured, including the driver and the cameraman, have also sustained deep wounds, but by the claws of the leopard. Both of them have been discharged after being given first-aid. “I went to see him (Sanjay Gubbi) this morning at the hospital. I spoke to him. He is a very brave man, and he is recovering. It will take some time,” said Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Dr Ravi Ralph. Mr Gubbi is a tiger conservationist and a scientist who works closely with the Forest Department.

It was a regular Monday at Vibgyor High, attendance 80 per cent
It was a regular Monday for students at Vibgyor High School in Marathahalli where a leopard was spotted and rescued on Sunday. All the students and parents who came to the school were curious to see from where the leopard had sneaked into the school. They came to know that it was through a broken glass window for a skylight. The attendance at the school was recorded at 80%.

The school felicitated their two security guards, N.S. Babu and Samuel, who spotted the leopard and ensured safety of all. School Principal Roshan D’Souza said that students and parents felicitated the two guards, who reported the sighting of the leopard to school authorities, who in turn alerted the police.

Wild animals straying into human habitats often go unnoticed: Activist
Often wild animals that stray into human habitations are not spotted, according to some environmentalists, who believe this is a good thing as they escape without being harmed and people too are not hurt. “Unfortunately, when they are spotted, it leads to situations like the one on Sunday. The Bangalore University campus has a leopard even today. It was spotted once, but never again. The first time it was seen there was a hue and cry, but later it was forgotten and it’s back to business at the campus. We see people going on their walks inside campus from as early as 4 am although the leopard is still there somewhere. There is no doubt about it,” says one animal activist.

In his view if the leopard was not spotted on CCTV footage or by the security guard at the Kundalahalli Varthur school, it would have probably eaten a dog and disappeared for a couple of years and nobody would have known.

“The leopard does not know if it’s a school or a church. It has come there in search of food, probably a dog, which is its easy prey. It was spotted and hence the whole drama unfurled. Fortunately, it was a Sunday. Imagine if this had happened on a week day when there were children in the school,” he adds.

The activist thinks the leopard could have come from a nearby forest, probably from Kadugodi or the Whitefield area.

“It could have been living in these areas for a long time unspotted, one  will never know,” he says.

‘Police helped us’
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, South East Division was at the spot and there was a large contingent of police personnel around the school. “They responded to our request and arrived at the spot with a large number of personnel to control the crowd. But curios onlookers and the overexcitement of the media crew to get visuals enraged the animal,” said Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Dr. Ravi Ralph, IFS.

Leopard won’t be released into wild because it has lost its tooth, eye infection: Dr. Ravi Ralph
The leopard was taken to the Bannerghatta National Park for medical examination, and the doctors checked the wild animal thoroughly. The leopard is fine. It’s a male and 4 to 6 years old. But it has two problems – its upper left canine is broken and it has glaucoma type of infection in its left eye. The broken canine tooth would be a handicap for the leopard. Coupled with its problem in the eye, the leopard would have certainly strayed into human habitats again to hunt easy prey, like dogs. That is the reason, a decision was taken not to release the leopard back into the wild. We have asked the director of Bannerghatta Biological Park to accommodate the animal at the rescue centre.