Leopard in a tea-cup: A study of leopard habitat-use and human-leopard interactions in north-eastern India

Abstract

There is increasing evidence of the importance of multi-use landscapes for the conservation of large carnivores. However, when carnivore ranges overlap with high density of humans, there are often serious conservation challenges. This is especially true in countries like India where loss of peoples’ lives and property to large wildlife are not uncommon. The leopard (Panthera pardus) is a large felid that is widespread in India, often sharing landscapes with high human densities. In order to understand the ecology of leopards in a human use landscape and the nature of human-leopard interactions, we studied (i) the spatial and temporal distribution and the characteristics of leopard attacks on people, (ii) the spatial variability in the pattern of habitat use by the leopard, and (iii) the spatial relationship between attack locations and habitat use by leopards. The study site, located in northern West Bengal, India, is a densely populated mixed-use landscape of 630 km2, comprising of forests, tea plantations, agriculture fields, and human settlements. A total of 171 leopard attacks on humans were reported between January 2009 and March 2016, most of which occurred within the tea-gardens. None of the attacks was fatal. We found significant spatial clustering of locations of leopard attacks on humans. However, most of the attacks were restricted to certain tea estates and occurred mostly between January and May. Analysis of habitat use by leopards showed that the probability of use of areas with more ground vegetation cover was high while that of areas with high density of buildings was low. However, locations of leopard attacks on people did not coincide with areas that showed a higher probability of use by leopards. This indicates that an increased use of an area by leopards, by itself, does not necessarily imply an increase in attacks on people. The spatial and temporal clustering of attack locations allowed us to use this information to prioritize areas to focus mitigation activities in order reduce negative encounters between people and leopards in this landscape which has had a long history of conflict.

Land‐sharing potential of large carnivores in human‐modified landscapes of western India

“…Since irrigated land cover has increased from 20,436 km 2 in 2001 to 42,675 km 2 in 2011 in the study area (District Census Handbook; http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/dchb/DCHB.html; accessed July 17, 2017), this represents a shift from typically wolf‐favoring habitats to potentially leopard‐favoring habitats. Leopard densities of 4.8 (SE = 1.2) have been documented in agricultural areas in this landscape (Athreya et al, ), and their presence has been documented in other production landscapes with prey elsewhere in the country (Athreya et al, ; Kshettry et al, ). Although dry grasslands have been representative habitats for wolves in India (Jethva & Jhala, ), seasonal agriculture better favored their presence compared to fragmented dry grasslands in the landscape.…”

“…For all three carnivore species, we selected covariates following a priori predictions based on field observations and published literature concerning their natural history (Table ). Broadly, we predicted that (a) leopard presence would be positively associated with higher degree of tree cover or permanent crop cover (because of the refuge it provides in human use landscapes) and abundance/densities of medium and large domestic prey, but negatively with urban habitation (Athreya et al, ; Kshettry et al, ), (b) wolf presence would be positively influenced by open dry habitats including grasslands, seasonal crop cover, abundance of antelope, and medium‐sized domestic prey, but negatively by forest cover and urban habitation (Habib & Kumar, ; Jethva & Jhala, ; M. Singh & Kumara, ), (c) hyena presence would be positively influenced by dry habitats with scrub cover, permanent crop cover like has been recorded in parts of the landscape, abundance of medium‐sized domestic prey and poultry farms, but negatively by open dry habitats and urban habitation (Athreya et al, ; P. Singh, Gopalaswamy, & Karanth, ).…”

“…Land conversions to agricultural use, accompanied by urbanization, have led to widespread modifications of arid and semiarid lands (Bestelmeyer et al, 2015;Ramankutty, Evan, Monfreda, & Foley, 2008). However, carnivores such as black bears Ursus americanus, cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus, wolves C. lupus pallipes, and jaguars Panthera onca have shown resilience and adapted to agricultural landscapes (Behdarvand et al, 2014;Blanco & Cortés, 2007;Boron et al, 2016;Ditmer et al, 2015;Winterbach, Winterbach, Boast, Klein, & Somers, 2015 4.8 (SE = 1.2) have been documented in agricultural areas in this landscape , and their presence has been documented in other production landscapes with prey elsewhere in the country (Athreya et al, 2015;Kshettry et al, 2017). Although dry grasslands have been representative habitats for wolves in India (Jethva & Jhala, 2004), seasonal agriculture better favored their presence compared to fragmented dry grasslands in the landscape.…”

Species‐specific spatiotemporal patterns of leopard, lion and tiger attacks on humans

“…39% of 31 classifiable daytime attacks, p = 0.0111, two-tailed, Fisher test). In contrast, there were no mortalities in the daytime attacks described by Kshettry et al (2017) where leopards reacted defensively to inadvertent encounters with workers on tea plantations.…”

Whose Habitat Is It Anyway? Role of Natural and Anthropogenic Habitats in Conservation of Charismatic Species

“…Sidhu, Raman, & Mudappa, 2015;Kshettry, Vaidyanathan, & Athreya, 2017) are known to adapt to human-use landscapes, dominated by tea and coffee plantations, sugarcane fields in villages, and are found even in urbanized spaces, coming into frequent contact with people (see Figure 2). However, these frequent interactions need not necessarily imply incidences of conflict, as indicated by Kshettry et al (2017), where the authors show that while leopards use ground cover in tea habitats extensively, this is not significantly correlated with conflict occurrence. Abundant wild prey presence in certain modified landscapes such as tea-coffee-forest-fragmented matrix of Valparai plateau in the Anamalai Hills, leopard diet primarily consists of wild prey such as Indian muntjac, Indian spotted chevrotain, sambar deer, Indian porcupine, and so on, as against domestic prey (Sidhu et al, 2015).…”