Keep crowds at bay while rescuing stray wild animals: Wildlife expert

Such incidents could be avoided if the forest officials are allowed to do their job peacefully, without people mobbing the area. The experts feel that handling of animals such as elephants, leopards and tigers is fraught with great risk and the presence of mob only aggravates the situation. If anybody gets attacked, the animals are blamed for it and shifted to zoos. The Thursday’s incident in Chikkamagaluru, when a leopard entered a school and was locked up inside a room, could have gone haywire if the school authorities had not confined the animal.

“When the animal was locked, and knowing that it cannot escape out from the grills, the forest department driver had no business to put his hand through the window for photographing the cornered beast. In such cases the wild cats get very aggressive and could attack anything that comes close to them. It’s important that the people who are not involved in the rescue must maintain a distance, for which the intervention of police is a must,” said Daniel Sukumar, a wildlife expert.

“There is provision for the police to clamp IPC section 144 (unlawful assembly) in places where the animal rescue to underway. There are several instances where the leopards have mistakenly strayed inside the houses located near the forest areas. They also prey on village dogs which are a much easier kill and often roam in areas populated by human during night hours. For decades they have coexisted with humans, but in the recent times their presence has been termed as menace by the people living near forests,” he added.

Sharath Babu, Honorary Wildlife Warden of Bengaluru Urban said a number of people have lost their lives during animal rescue operations and such operations require police protection to keep the crowd at bay. “During cases of leopards straying, large crowd gathers around the building or the area where the leopard has sheltered itself. The crowds should be managed by the police. With lesser numbers of people around the rescue area, the animals could be trapped with greater ease and avoid the possible stress that the animal may go through. This will also help in early relocation of such strayed animals into forest areas,” he added.