Why I'm blaming you for lynching, killing and mutilating Purulia leopard

You might have seen the images of a battered leopard hung up from a tree in a village in Purulia in West Bengal this week. And you might have preferred not to "see" it. Like the ostrich which buries its head in the sand, rather than face reality. Pretend that brutality doesn't exist, that people are not "beastly"; so you huddle into your little cocoon: of familial love and squabbles, of malls and movies, of triumphs and tribulations of daily life.

Or you might even have "acted": shared the news on Facebook, retweeted it, or signed the e-petition, and went on with life with a warm feeling of having done your bit. What more could you do? You are, after all, only one person.

But so was Rachel Carson, who authored Silent Spring, establishing the link between pesticides and cancer - and brought about a ban in DDT, and regulations in the pesticide industry. This was a key turning point, birthing the contemporary environment movement. And Nelson Mandela - freedom fighter, anti-apartheid activitist, political prisoner, president. A source of inspiration, a symbol of global peace.

And, of course, there as our very own Mahatma, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

But they were great people, you say. Yes, but they were ordinary people, once.

There are others who have not made the pages of history. Like Jadav "Molai" Payeng, a villager in Assam, who when realising that animals were losing their home to rapid deforestation, set about converting single-handedly abused, barren land into a lush forest. Today, the 1,360 acres of "Molai forest" gives sanctuary to elephants, tigers, rhinos, deer, hornbills, etc. Or the landless labourer Dashrath Manjhi from Gaya, Bihar who carved a road out of a mountain, chipping away with hammer, chisel, and crowbar. It took him 22 years but today 60 villages are able to access markets, health and educational facilities; thanks to that one man's compassion, conviction and determination.

It doesn't hold: this excuse of being "just one person".

Thing is, this indifference, this easy comfort of not being part of the solution knows no boundaries. It is there when you drive past the dog, crushed under a vehicle, in agony, and awaiting death. When you ignore the leopard clubbed to death because well, it occurred elsewhere. Or when a Gajendra Singh hangs himself to death in full public view of Delhi, a symbol, of the thousands of farmers who have opted to die, killed by apathy and debt, in places off our maps.

But I deviate, even if what I say is central to the subject. These tragedies happen for a variety of complex reasons, and at the root is our collective apathy.

Let's get back to this Purulia leopard. As per reports, the leopard had wandered by the village when she was spotted, chased, cornered, mobbed. Panicked and terrified, she struck back. You would too, if harassed and beaten by a frenzied mob of over 3,000. And a cat has claws and canines, hence a villager or two got injured.

So, the leopard was lynched, killed, mutilated, paws chopped off, hung, not unlike a grotesque trophy.

This is not the first time this has happened. Barely a month ago, in the last week of May, a leopard was beaten to death in Mayurbhanj district Odisha, even as it tried, desperately, to flee. In February, a similar incident occurred near Katarniaghat sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh.

It gets worse. In 2011, a leopard that entered in the Dhamdhar village in Kalagarh (Corbett) Tiger Reserve, was mobbed, pelted and stoned. The forest department rushed in to rescue, capturing the cat in a cage to be taken away. But the leopard - trapped, terrified and helpless - was doused with kerosene and set ablaze. Kerosene was poured over the forest staff too, lest they try to help the leopard.

Other animals have met similar fates. A bear in Srinagar was beaten, then burnt and telecast live in an "exclusive" story. Or the pathetic case of the young tigress in Chhattisgarh, pounded and bludgeoned for over six hours, by a 5,000 strong mob, before she finally, mercifully, collapsed and died. The carcass was then taken out in a victory procession.

What is wrong? And here we thought, we are a nation proud of its ahimsa tradition.

Let me assure you - there are greater instances of "no-conflict", of peaceful co-existence, than there are of conflict. No-conflict does not make news, we rarely hear of it. Like the tiger who roamed on the fringes of, and even within, Bhubneswar for no less than 10 months, without even one instance of human, or cattle, kill. We may hear of tigers poisoned in retaliation when they kill cattle, equally villagers take such a toll in their stride, even as it strikes at their livlihood. I met an old lady in Uttar Kannada who bent to touch the feet of a wild elephant, Ganesha, and lived to tell the tale! And earlier this month, villagers in Mudrady, Karnataka lowered a ladder to help a leopard who had fallen in a well. Importantly, in the rural, human-dense landscape of Akole, Ahmednagar (Maharashtra), with five leopards per 100sqkm, has little instance of conflict-largely because of proactive measures to curb the conflict.

Let me assure you too-we are far better than most nations we admire, and like to emulate. Like UK that continues to cull its badgers, hunt foxes by hounds and has eliminated all its predators; and the US which has hunting as part of its management policy, and for sport. And China, where most endangered species are on the menu, and which has wiped off its elephants, river dolphins and almost all its tigers.

We, India, has retained most of its large predators - not just due to protectionist laws which prohibit hunting, but also because of our remarkable tolerance and cultural connect with nature.

I am proud of India.

And then it does a Purulia and beats, burns, bludgeons its leopards and other animals.

Why?

The issue is complex. At the heart of the conflict is the destruction, degradation and fragmentation of wildlife habitats and corridors by mining, industrialisation and infrastructure projects, highways, canals and expanding human habitation. For instance, the mining (plus associated disturbances by heavy blasting, movement of machinery) in Saranda, a prime elephant habitat has caused the animals to migrate in distress, peaking conflict in neighboring villages and towns where none existed earlier.

It has equally to do with the fact that the government has not woken up yet to how to deal with such contingencies. It has to do with the lack of acceptance, and therefore preparedness, of shared landscapes, of the presence of carnivores outside sanctuaries, whose boundaries leopard and co. do not recognise. It has to do with the fact that we are losing this connect with nature. We need to work with, to dialogue with people living in proximity of forest, with wildlife. There needs to be coordination between district administration and police, a swift response time to control such mobs,

So that both do not suffer.

And in the long run, expand exist protected areas, conserving vital wildlife corridors, plan, regulate and restrict drastic changes in natural landscapes. We definitely need to change the way we handle conflict. When you have a leopard - or a tiger or elephant in your backyard - quell that panic, chasing, crowding, harrying the animal, only make them more nervous, aggressive. Remember, the leopard fears you, more than you do him.

And you, dear reader, make that leopard pic go viral. Write. Blog. Tell the government wildlife matters. Speak up, when a forest is desecrated, earmarked for destruction. Volunteer with NGOs working in this field.

Make your voice, and your vote, count.