Humans or Leopards in Kathmandu

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.