Humans or leopards?
Once upon a time, it was all green and dense covered forests
when great apes and big cats were living together competing with each other,
hunting for their own survival and basically both were evolving. Evolution
brings many changes, then humans evolved in the same way many new big-cats
species evolved alongside. We have a very deep eco-relationship among each
other since millions of years of struggle.
That was about the very
beginning of human evolution era. Things have changed quite a lot as of now. We
are the most superior beings of the planet now. And we have moved to more
sophisticated world of concrete and all non-living materialistic parts, our old
friend are still roaming those green jungles. But they are also getting more
and more successful in leading their generations to evolve as the time passes.
Now that we do not have a common thing about our place and way of life, the
relation we had previously have been broken sadly.
The case is about our very own heart of nation, Kathmandu.
From the past and during these recent years, we have been hearing about rampage
of big-cats in the news and media quite often. The balance seems to have really
got broken between us. Yes, we have destroyed most of their habitats for our
own refuge. And with the increasing population in Kathmandu, there aren't much
green regions here than there was just a decade ago. Leopards are moving into
human settlements, which was actually theirs before we came here. Kathmandu is
improving in its materialistic infrastructure gradually and with this its
paying the price for the evergreen forests.
It was a small general background which is happening in
almost all parts of the world. And with it, we are hearing the human-wildlife
conflict cases every day or so. People have become conscious about it and they
have been developing a proper solution which are friendly for both the historic
friends. Again coming back to Kathmandu or I should rather mention Nepal in
general, we have a habit of implementing any measures quite lately. In most of
the cases, usually the leopards get killed by angry local people or police
mainly because it was causing human injuries and sometimes death. Leopards are
solitary and silent predator, and they usually do not go after their prey,
rather they keep waiting until the prey comes to their close proximity and
ambushes it when the time is right. I have a thought, didn't we move in here
whereas they were here from before? It was their place before it was ours.
Anyways, to a leopard, humans aren't a potential prey. They come for our other
animal friends such as dogs, cattle, poultry etc. It is said that leopards try
their best to avoid humans as much as they can. Lets us also try our best to
avoid them as much as we can. Let us not take over their territories and claim
it ours. They had plenty of prey items in their natural habitat, but when we
are destroying their homes, their natural prey starts to deplete. Hence in the
fight for the survival for existence, it drives them to our settlement which is
the reason why the conflicts start rising and we are very clearly aware of it.
Having to hear leopard sighting or attacking cases often
times in the local and international media, I think the time has come for us to
stand up to get to the solutions. I am not saying of trying to find a solution,
we already have them, we just need to implement them which is the most
challenging part in our country. The implementation of researches and policies
being made be done as a serious issue without any delay. The leopards are
getting endangered very soon, and if we want to ensure this incredible beast to
roam this planet century later, then we have to act now. Contributing to this
cause from every corner have become necessary. We are called loyal beings, let's
play our role of loyalness and show to the world that we can make change, a
success story. Wouldn't you want to hear something that says 'A success story
of Nepal in their fight to conserve nature and its sentient beings'. And in the
same run, wouldn't you want to make yourself safe and make our old friends'
future secure too? There are many mitigation measures that could be implemented
for the betterment of both us and leopards. I don't have to mention any of
those, because I think there are already so many good people and organizations
and institutions doing such awareness programs. What I would like to point is
we 'youth' are the hope of tomorrow, and we have the power of bringing change.
Let us play our role in this fight from every corner and every possible way we
can. Let us join our hands together for making a better place to live for us
and our historic wild friend. Lastly, to the Government of Nepal, I want to
request to please provide enough funds from your account to the concerned
wildlife authorities to buy proper equipments and gears required while dealing
with a wild animal and arrange a better training for the concerned personnel
who are directly risking their lives in order to capture the animal safely,
rather than spending the money for your personal visit to abroad countries for
nothing. It's not a joke when you are trying to capture an animal that bites
you back and tears your skin apart. Get serious sooner before it's too late!
Let's try to improve this bond we had from very long time ago.
