KANNUR: Raising concerns among forest officers and the people, the frequency of leopards straying into human habitation in different parts of the state is on the rise. In the latest development, the Forest Department has confirmed the presence of a leopard at Palliyammula following the death of two calves the other day, leaving Kannur residents in jitters on Saturday. On March 5, a leopard had attacked five people at Thayatheru in the city. It was later tranquilised by the Forest Department. In the Palliyammula incident, the wild cat that killed the calves dragged the animals away from the spot they were tethered to and ate portions of the animals.
The forest officers who visited the spot and inspected the carcass recorded pug marks and confirmed the presence of a leopard in the area. The people have been told to not to venture out of their houses alone at night and to keep all doors closed. The department will lay a trap to cage the animal. The cage will be brought from the neighbouring Wayanad district. As per inputs given by the local residents to forest officers, a leopard was spotted the other day at Palliyammoola in Payambalam.
While a section of officers and environmentalists claim the drought-like situation and water scarcity in forest areas is triggering an outbreak of migration of wild animals into human habitation in search of water and fodder, other sections of experts say the increase in leopard population in recent times in proportion to other animals such as stray dogs, domesticated dogs and goats on the forest fringe has been attracting leopards to human landscapes. In India, the leopard population has increased consistently from about 6,830 in 1993 to about 14,000 in 2014.
Besides, a section of leopards - mainly injured and aged ones - will be pushed to the forest fringe in the territorial fight with other carnivores, whose numbers are also high in the forests now, experts say. In a study conducted by the wildlife division of the Kerala Forest Research Institute in 2014, leopards straying into human settlements around 16 times between April 2009 and March 2012 in parts of central Kerala had lifted cattle. In most incidents, the nocturnal felines reached the human settlements in search of stray and domesticated dogs and cattle. (With inputs from Kochi)