Have you even been to sugarcane field? These impenetrable clusters of cane clumps, especially before the pre-harvest season, grow over eight feet, and there is little space left for humans to pass. The dense undergrowth growth and the sharp leaves ensure that a trip through the field is fairly avoided. Undisturbed, this makes the perfect condition for wild animals to take refuge and sometimes even give birth to a litter. This is exactly what the villagers of Nizampur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh witnessed just a few weeks back.

Bordering the jungles of Pilibhit, the sugarcane fields of Nizampur have regularly been host to tigers and leopards. Consequently, the surprise was anticipated when Hariprasad was suddenly attacked one morning as he was taking count for the harvest. The boy sustained only minor injuries but the attack did call for an intervention. On tracking the pugmarks, the team from Wildlife Trust of India was led to a small opening and a litter of five cubs, each, less than a week old.

Appreciation certificate handed over by village head to Mr. Puttulal, Photo credit: Aman Bhatia

Puttulal was one of the volunteers who were a part of this weeklong operation to reunite cubs with their mother. After all, it was his field that the litter was found in. Along with the forest department and WTI Terai Tiger Project Team, it was Puttulal and his gang who strategized how to protect the cubs, in-spite of one of the villagers nearly escaping death. “We understand how it is for a mother. Being a father of two myself, I would consider it a grave sin if the mother were to be killed and the cubs orphaned”.

In several such similar cases across the country, these attacks have resulted in extreme aggression on part of the villagers, thus leading to the death of the animals. But this mother from Nizampur was lucky.  “Losing a child is perhaps the worst thing that can happen to a parent. It is devastating. It seems like the whole world has turned upside down and you would do everything to get back your child” exclaims Puttulal. This is a situation where the whole world is at your side and it should not be different if you are a leopard!

Setting up camera traps in the field, Photo credit: WTI PRT

The efforts bore fruit and it was nothing short of a celebration on the evening of 21^st May. The whole village gathered in the village courtyaed to see a slide show that was compiled from the camera trap photographs recorded from the reunion. As more than 100 villagers from Haripur and Khutar clapped, Puttulal could not hold back his tears. “It must be some divine intervention that gave me the opportunity to be a part of this reunion. I feel blessed!”, he exclaims.

Situations like this do pose serious risk to both the lives of humans and the animal though. Mr. Anil Nair, lead of the Terai Tiger Project discussed how to be prepared for such situations while commending the work done in this instance by the villagers. As a memento, the whole village, along with the forest department and WTI team felicitated Puttulal and Ramesh, who shared the part of the field that the cubs were born in, with a certificate, to recognize their contribution towards saving the lives of the leopard cubs and standing by a mother.

Camera trap photograph of leopard picking up its cubs

People like Puttulal are role models for all villages that share their territory with forest fringes. With forests shrinking, there is high pressure on existing wild habitats, leading to animals coming out in the open. We should understand that we must share the land and its resources among all the species that depend on it. Conflict resolution does not always need to end in aggression and blood bath. In Terai, WTI has been working for human-wildlife conflict resolution since 2009. Supported by the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department and Chester Zoo, we have been able to achieve several such success stories over the year. To know more about the project, click here.