AR-News: (India) Move big cats but problem stays: Experts

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

The  Indian Express   
Friday, July 02, 2004
Lack of prey base in other reserves will kill  leopards
 
 
        _VIVEK DESHPANDE _ 
(http://www.indianexpress.com/about/feedback.html?url=http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=50184&title=Move%20b
ig%20cats%20but%20problem%20stays:%20Experts)     
Posted online: Friday, July 02, 2004  
NAGPUR, JULY 1: The Maharashtra  government’s decision to move leopards to 
tiger reserves in Vidarbha today  came under fire from wildlife experts who said 
it only amounted to moving  the problem into another’s backyard under public 
pressure.  
Retired chief wildlife warden and the man  behind Bhopal’s famous Vanvihar 
zoo, P.M. Laad, is certain the move won’t  work. ‘‘Man-eater leopards shifted 
to other places can create the same  problem there...(besides) leopards can get 
injured trying to free  themselves and an injured leopard is more likely to 
attack human beings.’’  
Questions on transferring the animals to a  new setting range from whether 
their new homes would have an adequate prey  base to the viability of releasing 
man-eaters in areas which, again, are  not free from human habitation.  
‘‘No study has been carried out to check if  there is surplus prey base in 
Tadoba, Pench and Melghat to sustain the  leopards that will be shifted there. 
Last time, 11 leopards from Junnar  were shifted to Melghat which already had 
75. How was it presumed that  Melghat had enough prey for such a large number 
of predators?’’ says  Kishore Rithe, a wildlife enthusiast and former member 
of the State  Wildlife Advisory Board. A local forest officer says no study 
has been  conducted even on the fate of the leopards that were shifted from 
Junnar.  ‘‘Whether they survived or died in territorial fights with the original  
big cats in these areas is not known,’’ he says.  



full  story:

_http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=50184_ 
(http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=50184)  



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We fill the slaughterhouses  daily with screams of fear and pain. - 
Robert Louis  Stevenson
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