Monday, April 02, 2012

Gir wild cats mauled 10 to death in a year

02-04-2012
Gir wild cats mauled 10 to death in a year
Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Gir-wild-cats-mauled-10-to-death-in-a-year/articleshow/12497498.cms

Lions and leopards killed at least 10 persons in Junagadh district in the past one year. The state government has revealed that 1,966 attacks on cattle and 60 attacks on humans have been reported in the same period.

In a written reply to a question by MLA Dhirsinh Barad, the government said that in the 60 attacks, 10 people died and 52 were injured in the year ending January 31.

The government has also paid a compensation of Rs 66.63 lakh in case of deaths of cattle and person, while Rs 55.36 lakh were paid for the death of 2,486 cattle, Rs 9.5 lakh in case of death of person and Rs 1.77 lakh for those 52 person who were injured in the attack.

Going by the figures, the maximum attacks on cattle and humans were in Una taluka where 589 cattle and 15 persons were attacked in the last one year.

This was followed closely by Talala where 301 cattle attacks were reported and 11 persons mauled.

A senior officer refusing anonymity said that in victims in the majority cases of attacks on humans were mauled by leopards. He said that the leopards were getting out of the Gir sanctuary and were moving in the open fields. This was leading to increased human-animal conflict.

Lions have not attacked many people. The wild cat has targeted cattle the most. "With their population increasing, lions are moving out of the sanctuary and have made several areas along the coast as their permanent home. This has resulted in the increased number of attacks on the cattle."

1 comment:

Dr SP Sinha, Dehradun said...

Man made habitat siuts big cats and provides food and shelter that is why both the large predator roam around Gir WLS upto coastal villages.If you see the number of calf mortality number you will find number of livestock killing will be more as compared to inside the Gir Forest livstocks belongs to maldharies.What the reason quite simple Maldharies knows how to live with large predators on the otherhand outside Gir have not such s=experience and feel agronant of the presence of lion or leopard just want to get rid.Thaey need c proper awareness and precasutions to be taken not after any mishappining but before that .I used stay whole day and night inside the Gir forest deep in the forest but never had any problem of attacks.
Mr Sk Goyal CCF Wildlife and Mr AK Sharma Adl PPCF Forest corportion were posted in Gir West and Gir East and seen me roaming around in Gir on foot with my guide Abbala Zafar a teacher for me.I learned alot from him. But I lost him..
Dr SP Sinha
Dehradun

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