Leopard with Cubs in Kanha National Park

At least on three occasions, I have come across a leopard with a single cub crossing the jungle road in Kanha National Park in Central India.  I work as a naturalist in Kanha and hence come across exciting moments during the tiger safari in the park. 

I remember when just after breakfast at Kanha Interpretation Centre we decided to explore link seven inhabited by the famous Naina tigress labeled T 76.  It was around 10 and we had an hour to go before leaving the place. The park closes at 11.30 AM every day and the jeeps have to be out of the park by then. 

Taking a chance as I always do we decided to venture into link 7 since most of the jeeps had departed for the gate and some were focusing at Bison road for Neelam tigress. I had seen leopards many times but this is the first time I came across a leopard with a cub.  In the simmering heat of April, we heard alarm cries near the Bela Chapper waterhole and stopped. 

                                                        Leopard With Cubs Mobile Video 

The leopard was looking straight at us much to our surprise it was sitting still. I was intrigued by his behavior as he was constantly turning around and peering into the bushes. There must be a kill I thought hidden in the bush. 

I instructed the driver to move back a little distance to make the leopard comfortable hoping that it would come out. We had not seen the cub till then. As we reversed the female panther started to cross the road and instead of vanishing in the bush like small predators always do she came to rest under the tree and began calling. We knew instantly that she was calling her cub. After a long wait, she moved back once again into the bush and then came out followed by a frightened cub who perhaps had encountered humans for the first time. 

We had great moments with the leopards and I could film them a few times. There are more leopard videos below for you to watch. The story has been always the same with the hesitant cub being coaxed to cross over.   

The videos tell their own stories and encounters like these happen after roaming in the wild for years. Guiding tourists in search of tigers and leopards is a herculean task and much depends upon experience, tracking skills, and of course luck. 

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Uday Freelances as Naturalist in Central India. He is an avid birder and tiger enthusiast. He blogs on tigers, wildlife, and birds. He also writes about the environment and conservation.

Uday also provides SEO Services and Website Contents in English. He teaches Digital Marketing in Jabalpur in Summer Holidays.
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Contact: pateluday90@hotmail.com
09755089323 

Exciting Leopard Sightings at Kanha

Guests From UK 
Andrew & Rebecca
Courtyard House Kanha

We had missed the tigress having seen the cubs along with the mother we were seeking other wilderness experiences. As it was bound to be the guide was a bit overzealous and took the wrong turn in spite of my instructions. We did not venture into the road of the last day's sightings. But then as always happens a tiger sighting missed is not a good experience.
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But I did not insist instead I decided to venture into a less-traveled path, and rewarded we were. One benefit of a slow drive in the forests is that you come across more, you would otherwise miss if you shoot through. Anyway rules and regulations do not allow speed beyond 20km/hour, and I am a stickler.  

I could make out that the route we had taken was devoid of safari vehicles as most of them had already scoured the area and were on the way for breakfast. Silence, no traffic and slow speed besides alert senses fetch the unthinkable in the Indian forests. 

The leopard was actually turning back for as we realized later, the cub hearing the jeep sound was not willing to cross the road. We were at a distance from the predator as he crossed over and from an angle, we could see her sitting peacefully well lit by strands of morning sun sneaking through the canopy. 

Sometimes it is difficult to decide which animal is striking the tiger or the leopard. Well, that's an individual judgment. I was awe-struck as the light fell on the graceful creature looking inquisitively at us from between the thickets. 

"There is a cub with her!" I whispered upon seeing the young one in the thickets. We stayed put at a distance. The mother came out once again picked up a fallen log and stood looking at us expecting the cub to cross the road and be on the way.  For a long time, the female stood content looking at us surprised but not completely in that serene ambiance. This was a unique sight and we were placed quite close to the leopard cub while the mother was at the other end. They were separated by a twenty feet jungle road.

The Vanishing Leopard in India

One Starry Night in The Forest

The female must have been waiting to cross over the road whence my jeep intruded on the serene ambiance of the starry night. Thwarted by the strong headlights the disturbed leopard stood still peering into the ghostly darkness at the bizarre animal in the metal contraption. 

My staff had whispered as we were negotiating the bend on the highway near Jabalpur my hometown. 

"Shining Eyes Sir!"  

It was eleven pm, and I was returning after a busy day purchasing tendu leaf from the Government godown at Kundam about forty km from Jabalpur in the hinterland. There are few places in urban India endowed with forests as good as Jabalpur...albeit losing ground fast due to intruding urbanization.

The reserve forests are losing crown cover here and hold a scarce prey base that supports few remaining leopards desperately surviving. I was also able to come across tigers mating here in the denuded confines of Baghraji Forests perhaps trying to revive their population coming to a definite end in this vanishing wilderness.       

Upon notice by the staff, I brought my jeep to a halt and then reversed. "Point out where exactly you see the eyes reflecting." I switched out the headlights and waited for some time before moving towards the bush where the reflecting eyes were noticed. Pointing my jeep towards the bush I switched on my torch.    

Not one but four pairs of eyes shone as I threw my torch around the bush. It was a female with three cubs about seven feet from us staring at the spectacle of humans in an open jeep. A few decades back this would have been a normal sighting but in these beleaguered times, this was a rare instance. 

"She will get us!"

I was too engrossed in the spectacle to be cautious about the proximity. I could hear her warning coughs as I put the jeep in forward motion. The story had a sad ending, one of the cubs was poisoned a year after and another ended at a police station platform in broad daylight. The fate of the animals was not known thereafter.   

Leopard Cub

Leopard Female

The Status

The status of leopards in India is on a steep decline. The drastic loss of habitat and the ensuing man-animal conflict is resulting in the endangerment of this beleaguered feline species.  As per the recent news, more than a hundred leopards have been found dead in a spate of two months all over India. This is an alarming figure and the rot does not in any manner seems to stem.  

The rapid decline of feline species speaks of our callous attitude towards wildlife and their habitats in general. The situation is further compounded by the colonial legacy which labeled wild animals as vermin especially the predators in India. Unfortunately, wildlife conservation finds only lip service in the country and no major policy decision takes into consideration the preservation of our heritage wilderness wealth. 

The phenomenal diversity is fast disappearing now limited to protected areas and that too the ones receiving dedicated inputs. In vast countries a minuscule portion of land is subject to preservation, the rest is being exploited without any concern.

We live in an era that takes into account the well-being of one species only...that is us. Other life forms are shamefully neglected. Our news and political speak are only concerned with economic growth figures, welfare schemes, and rabid industrialization at cost of crucial natural resources and of course our health. Society has become so human-centered that we consider other life forms as unimportant and often a big nuisance.  

The attitude will certainly result in warming, water scarcity, pollution, lack of productivity that sustains us, and chaos. Name it and you have it. Beware!              

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The image of predators as bloodthirsty rogues is permanently etched in our minds and that shapes our attitude. Albeit hunting is banned by the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, mass-scale lynching by humans on intruding leopards is a frequently occurring event. Poaching by electrification finds no solution and rising prices of wildlife products are an ever-looming threat the country faces.  

The Vedas preached conservation in an ecosystem known as Hinduism in many thoughts originated and survives till today irrespective of extreme divergence. Why are we not following the sound principles preached by our ancestors as regards nature?      

In the bygone era, wild animals including tigers and leopards lived in close proximity to human populations. The conflict was limited to one odd instance of a man killing in urban scapes... not anymore. Man-eating was due to advancing settlements and reducing prey base. All this good was due to ample forests/habitats prevailing before the denudation took place. Our greed for rabid urbanization, uncontrolled agriculture, and illicit wealth generation has taken a heavy toll on natural places all over and the disastrous practices continue. Human beings in any shape, size, and type have repeatedly shown extreme neglect of their surroundings affecting the health of the habitats and ecosystems prevailing they are in. There is hardly any inviolate space left for other life forms in our country.

The decline of wild animal populations started with bounty hunters and elite sport during the Raj, and the large-scale conversion of forests into agriculture fields not forgetting the ever-increasing settlements. Another age-old activity that has had far-reaching consequences was and is commercial forestry and wood logging.     

Poaching has a substantial role in the large number of leopard deaths that take place every year. This sounds like a death knell for the feline species as the population is estimated below ten thousand all over the country. 

Poaching and denudation is the major threat to our wilderness and strong protective mechanism and conservation practices are the need of the hour. The onus is on the Indian administration and politicians who shape our policies. But this does not keep the general population out of the loop. People's participation and awareness will go a long way to preserving or we will certainly lose our heritage.

Images By Suttons UK.        

Wild Odyssey in India

Kanha National Park

Guests at Courtyard House

Mark & Karin Anger ; France
Denise Anfrui : France 

The drive was high in expectation a wild odyssey was in making as we boarded the taxi at Jabalpur Station and drove towards Kanha National Park. The enthusiasm of the visitors was palpable from their looks and they expected me to deliver which I did.

The guests were expecting to see some Central Indian wildlife after a visit to Gir National Park in Gujarat to see the Asiatic Lion.  

The next part of the journey was a few days at Bera the popular leopard habitat in Rajasthan in Western India. 

The Kanha trip was a great success with excellent tiger sightings, bird watching, and other enchanting mammals. 

Here are some of the images sent by Denise Anfrui.  

https://adobe.ly/2EiiKn4  

A Kill in Making

Leopard Safari at Kanha National Park 

It was one of those days when you have a tough time deciphering calls. We were on a tiger safari in the Sarhi Zone whence we reached the Saunf Meadow. We had just crossed over the Siliyari Waterbody and were moving further. At the Saunf meadow, we encountered frantic calls of the langur.   

The monkey was up on the tree facing towards the road to Sarhi. The calls continued for a very long time aided by other langurs now and then. But we could see and hear nothing...the alarm was strong and continuous.  We waited in expectation for a long time and looked all over near and far but no big cat was in sight.

Normally frantic calls mean a moving cat which also means a sure-shot sighting. Well almost! The guide had lost all hope and urged us to proceed in order to maintain timings.

"We will return via this road while turning back", I said to the guide. "Worth investigating", he affirmed. So we continued through the magic landscape of  Sarhi Zone inundated by the mesmerizing Sulkum River. 

After an hour or so on the return, we slowed down and searched. The calls had ceased, but anyway we were proceeding slowly since the area Saunf Meadow is often visited by the tigers. Two safari jeeps passed us nodding their head in disappointment which meant nothing exciting behind.     

It was going to be a dull day I thought as we continued.

Well, not. "Stop," shouted the guide.

Move back he instructed the driver much to the amazement of my foreign guests staying at Courtyard House Kanha. For there sprawled on the rock was a full-grown leopard in bright sunlight looking straight at us. WoW!

I looked back to see if the jeeps were still near us but they had sped away on their way. The leopard...shy predator? No way he sat on the rock sprawled like a cool cat. After some time he moved toward the ground and stretched.   

He then sat down majestically and looked at us menacingly disturbed perhaps by our presence at such close quarters. Then much to our surprise, he began to move in the grass barely visible at times. It was amazing how the big cat could perfectly camouflage and easily loose itself  amidst the short crop grass. 

Leopard in Grass - Credit Teerath Singh

The game of hide and seek continued as the leopard moved toward a pair of spotted deer. Totally unaware of death at close quarters they continued to graze merrily on the edge of the jungle road. Another jeep had joined us with loads of noisy holidaymakers.

We are going to witness a rare hunt, a moment of our lifetime. Feeling highly excited we were barely able to contain our tongues. The brilliance of the acrobatic grace of the creature had us totally mesmerized. Cameras clicking was all that made the sound. 

The graceful cat would crouch and then move forward excruciatingly slow. I could see the path it chose all the time keeping it in hiding. What a drama I whispered to the guests.  

The hunt was perfectly on the leopard had crouched to about ten feet from the unaware deer.  And then! Woof!

From the other side of the road, a noisy Bolera jeep belonging to the forest department came towards us approached the deer, and manage to scare them away. The game was over. The abject disregard for what was happening was nothing new. With due respect for the conservation efforts, many times the forest staff is disregardful and rude towards the tourists and totally unmindful of their activities.       

The vehicle sped past at good speed disturbing the hunt and a hungry leopard who vanished from sight.  

Many times I think mannerism is important and the chauvinistic attitude towards tourism becomes evident in the tiger reserves. Proper behavioral code is as important for the tourists as it is for the departmental staff. I have noticed this lacuna on many occasions regarding the latter.  

Leopards in Trouble

The worst news for nature lovers is the death of the big cats. Critically poised on brink of extinction the big cats are entirely at the mercy of the poachers, greedy and the developers. Habitat destruction and systemic hunting have been the major factors behind the endangerment of this species.   

The leopards survive in wider habitats as compared to the tiger. They are more likely to be found near human habitations even those devoid of forests. The enormous ability to survive should auger a good future but this is not so leopards are being killed at rapid pace in India. They are the greater victim of man animal conflict than the elder cousin.

Leopard Dharmagiri

Recently two leopard were found in the vicinity of Barhi Forests near Bandhavgarh National Park. The dead bodies were found in a spate of few days. This does not augur well since the pattern is suggestive of organized poaching. Though the post mortem reports and viscera analysis drown in the length of the time this repeated tragedy is suggestive of poaching gangs operating in and around the verdant forests of Bandhavgarh National Park.  

I have been visiting the Barhi Forests as a naturalist at Muchmucha Lodge since some time. The wildlife is impressive by all means though the forest face denudation near the villages in this area. 

Leopard Dharmagiri

Most of the tragedies are taking place due to callous attitude of those in charge, while some may be involved in the nexus. There have been cases of electrocution of animals including the tiger in Central Indian Tiger Reserves. These have been happening since a number of years but no substantial solution is in the place. All this points to total disregard  for our wild denizens and their habitats. Conserving wilderness in protected areas is not enough there should be concerted efforts to protect it irrespective of the status of land. 

         

Leopard Story - Bandhavgarh

With Sandeep Diddi, Colonel Rajiv Joshi & Families!

We had just dropped our luggage in front of the room when we heard this! "It is a leopard!" I turned around towards my friends and said, "Don't Bother". "No shortage of experts here"! A small crowd had gathered on the lawn facing the Charanganga River at Bandhavgarh and we get an open view of the bank near the Tala Gate Entrance.  It was late evening and we wanted to freshen up in our room at the White Tiger Lodge at Bandhavgarh National Park. 

It took me some time to realize that the person who said that was none other than the manager of White Tiger Resort at Bandhavgarh!

I knew he was wildlife savvy, so I called my friends and said, "Hey let's look". 

By this time a large assemblage of occupants had taken place in front of the lawns facing the Charanganga River and the Tala Gate. I approached the manager, and he whispered that right opposite on the banks of the river was a leopard. "But the commotion" he looked at me a bit disappointed. 

Many of the occupants were carrying torches throwing light on the banks.

"Please turn off your torches and maintain silence for some time," I was barely audible. Awestruck by the possibility of seeing a big cat the command was obeyed instantly.          

Some time ticked by and then I said, "Throw Light but without the sound," and there, right on the banks was a full-grown leopard. Perturbed by the light and squeals of delight from one and all, the big cat tried to climb unto a tree nearby. It climbed halfway a way then startled by the commotion and excited banter came down, and started to amble toward the gate. In a few minutes, it vanished into the wilderness. Right in Front of us!!!! And we could see all of it under the torchlight!!!!!

Wow! My friends looked at me in disbelief. This was their first trip to the forest ever and look what they get to see. "Look what you get to see," I said, they had a question on their countenance. But don't you see this wonder often. "Explanation tomorrow friends. It's time to make merry, eat, and sleep," I said barely containing my excitement. 

We thanked the manager of the Bandhavgarh hotel accommodation for his sharp eyesight. Dinner over, I realized that this was the most fortuitous event in my life, albeit I had seen the big cat earlier. In the two days we stayed at Bandhavgarh we sighted Sita with her four cubs. Little Charger was right up to his antics and frightened the wits out of the visitors.            

By the way, I would love to hear this, "It's a leopard" again and again throughout my lifetime. 

Tiger Bones

Just today TOI reported the confiscation of tiger and leopard bones along with part of other wildlife. Uttaranchal it seems is most susceptible to poaching due to large forest belts and wildlife that includes tigers, leopards, and wild elephants.

The bones were confiscated right at the doorstep of the  Corbett tiger reserve at Ramnagar. The Field Director's office is based here. Earlier a number of snares and traps were seized from a person.    

Unfortunately, the seizure is not a rare occurrence but rather frequent. The state is already beset with rabid colonization of its natural places due to what seems to be a no-hold-bar policy. The poaching in the state spells disaster and could lead to the extinction of many engendered animals.

Uttaranchal is one of the finest birding destinations but the colonization will take its toll and bring the figure down. Wildlife and Birding Tourism has brought about substantial revenue generation along with employment to a large number of downtrodden. Conservation and preservation practices are to be followed actively in order to boost tourism responsibly and protect nature.   

Reckless intrusion

A man was killed and another lost his scalp in an attack by a stray leopard. This incident happened whence the leopard strayed into Gauhati City in Eastern India in the State of Assam. Similar incidences have taken place elsewhere in India.

The leopard was tranquilized and transported to a local zoo nearby. It is presumed that the animal would be released in a wildlife sanctuary nearby.  These are unfortunate incidents that tar the big cats' image. But who is to blame? 

Humans a constantly intruding into the domains of big cats in India. The builder's lobby is insensitive to the homes of the animals. As the cities grow in India the shortage of houses leads to intrusion into natural lands in the periphery. These areas are inhabited by wild denizens living there for ages.  

Conflict is a natural reaction to the intrusion into one's domain. But it does not seem that a solution is in place. The reckless expansion of human habitation is taking a toll on wilderness in the country. There needs to be a planning mechanism that takes wilderness and wildlife into account before permission can be granted to colonize.