A research carried out in Himachal Pradesh shows that the sudden loss of family members, including children, due to leopard attacks is impacting the mental health and is a life-altering experience for communities. A report by Deepanwita Gita Niyogi
In India, the human-leopard conflict is increasing day by day due to a number of factors. The tea estates of North Bengal, the Zawar mines area of Rajasthan and a few districts of Uttarakhand are known for this menace.
A study, Charting risk pathways of leopard attacks on people: A decision tree approach, based in Himachal Pradesh, points out the extent of the problem in this mountainous state. The study was published on January 7, 2025 in the international journal, Human Dimensions of Wildlife.
This was a practitioner-based study, said lead author Shweta Shivakumar. “The state of Himachal Pradesh was chosen because even though about 30 attacks happen to people here in a year, no research was either carried out or national attention given to the reduction of attacks by leopards on humans. Thus, the management action related to conflict reduction was informed by research carried out elsewhere in India. The forest department wanted the research to focus on provision of site-based inputs to improve the situation for the people of Himachal Pradesh,” she told Tehelka. The study assessed the degree of risk experienced due to 344 leopard attacks on people.
The study talks about the mental health of communities, probably often overlooked, when talking about human-wildlife conflict. It describes the experiences of the family members of injured victims and those of the deceased as a result of attacks. “Mental impacts were described in all instances as the family’s grief and fear of watching their kids being dragged away and their immediate reaction to it,” the study says.
Conflict and mental health
Shivakumar, who is doing her doctoral research at the Bengaluru-based Centre for Wildlife Studies, explained that the study found the mental impact of losing family members, including children, to leopard attacks is a life-altering experience. “Each such victim recounted the incident down to the last detail. This has changed the way people look at leopards and the areas the animals live in. Those who could, mostly labourers, have relocated post attacks as a safety measure.”
The study shows how people react to protect themselves from possible attacks. “Most people either take more precautions while working in the fields or have asked the forest department to relocate or kill the animals that caused deaths and severe injuries,” the author pointed out. However, the leopard is a protected species under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and cannot be harmed.
Injuries cause life-altering experiences, as the study shows. One of the changes is a transition in livelihood patterns and an impact on the household income. It is imaginable that after attacks, people reduced the number of livestock and dogs. Following inadequate medical attention, there has been a reduction in people’s ability to carry out physical activity that contributes to income.
“Since 66 percent of the households, who faced attacks, were from the economically weaker strata of society, the loss or incapacitation of a family member negatively impacted their earning capacity,” Shivakumar explained.
Drivers of attacks
In many places, human-wildlife conflicts arise due to land use change. This is perceptible in North Bengal where tea gardens have led to the fragmentation of forests. These provide cover to leopards where they give birth to cubs. This leads to attacks during the plucking season.
A previous paper, “Examining leopard attacks: spatio-temporal clustering of human injuries and deaths in Western Himalayas, India,” had tested the land use change theory in Himachal Pradesh leading to leopard attacks on people. But Shivakumar pointed out that it was not a driver of conflicts in the region. The study was unable to point out environmental factors driving the attacks.
She added that in certain regions such as Bilaspur, Hamirpur and Mandi, and also during specific periods like the years 2009 and 2012, a lot of attacks occurred. “However, this could be driven by leopard management actions such as translocation or the local removal of leopards, but this is in an untested theory due to the lack of data. The authors still don’t know what drives the surge in attacks on people in Himachal Pradesh.”
Another point is that there were no gender patterns detected in the study unlike the tea gardens of Bengal where women are more vulnerable to attacks during the plucking of tea. Overall, 67 percent of the attacks happened on men in Himachal.
“I believe that the patterns detected were activity-based ones where men were more likely to be outdoors, like either walking alone in forests, grazing livestock or collecting firewood, as compared to women. The study found that women mostly travelled in groups while collecting grass and firewood and sustained minor injuries even if they were attacked.”
Livestock is one of the major reasons behind the occurrence of human-leopard conflict. According to data provided by the forest department for Mandi district which has five forest divisions, livestock-related cases were high. In 2021, 59 cases of livestock killing were recorded in Mandi. In 2022, there were 55 cases, and in 2023, 49 cases were registered. Compared to this, human attack cases were negligible. In 2021, one human being was injured, the year 2022 had no case, and in 2023, two cases happened. There were no death cases. Compensation paid to people for their loss stood around Rs 3.47 lakh during these three years. The forest department did not provide state data on human-leopard conflict.
Divisional forest officer Raj Kumar Sharma, in charge of the Kunihar division in Solan district, said that the forest department makes people aware about the conflict issue. “Livestock and domesticated animals are easily lifted by leopards. So, we urge people to keep dogs inside. We also tell them to keep on lights after dark. Apart from this, there should be proper disposal of garbage.”
One of the main problems is that the forest cover is declining and the human population is increasing. Mandi district resident Somkishan Somu admitted that leopards cause a lot of problems and shared that once a leopard lifted his brother’s goat. Six other goats also met the same fate. “There have been dog lifting cases in the villages,” said Somu, who lives in Pangna Valley in Mandi district’s Karsog.
The farmer also shared the incident of a leopard attack on a woman who had to spend a fortnight in the hospital. “In the winters, attacks are common, as the animals come in search of food. The woman, who is also from Pangna, was attacked six months ago. Her goat was attacked, and when she intervened, the leopard attacked her in turn.”
Mandi district chief conservator of forest Ajit Thakur said that leopards are freely moving in the cities and towns due to the availability of food and the prevalence of stray dogs. “It is impacting the economy through the lifting of livestock on which people depend on for livelihood.” However, Thakur pointed out that though injuries happen to humans due to leopard attacks, the number of deaths does not happen on a large-scale in the state.
