Department of Endangered Species Management, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
PLoS One. 2018 Oct 5;13(10):e0204528. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204528. eCollection 2018.
Human killing is the decisive and most critical expression of human-leopard conflict and needs to be addressed sensitively to maintain local support for leopard conservation in India. This research was undertaken to investigate the ecological aspects of human killing and injury, spatial characteristic and pattern of such sites, temporal and seasonal trends of attacks and perception of local communities towards leopard in the Indian Himalayan region (IHR). We surveyed two sites i) Pauri Garhwal in the western part and ii) North Bengal (Dooars) in the eastern part of IHR, compiled secondary data on human-leopard conflict records and made field visits to (N = 101) conflict sites. We also conducted (N = 186) semi-structured questionnaire surveys in each of the sites to assess perception of local communities towards leopard. We analyzed the conflict data using rare events model in a binary logistic regression framework to understand spatial patterns of such incidents for Pauri Garhwal and North Bengal. The average number of injuries and deaths to leopard attacks in Pauri was estimated to be 11 (SE 1.13) and 3 (SE 0.6) per year between 2006-2016 whereas in North Bengal it was estimated to be 70 (SE 9.2) and 1.6 (SE 0.3) respectively between 2004-2016. About 97% of the leopard attacks in North Bengal and 60% of the leopard attacks in Pauri resulted in human injuries. Majority of the leopard attack victims in Pauri were children and young people, whereas in North Bengal it was middle aged tea estate workers. Attack on humans in Pauri were recorded mostly near areas with dense scrub cover whereas in North Bengal it was reported within tea-estates. The percentage of human deaths to leopard attacks in Pauri were higher (40%) compared to a mere (3%) in North Bengal. Forty-one percent of respondents in Pauri and 75% in North Bengal were positive towards presence and conservation of leopard. A predictive risk map revealed central and northern regions of Pauri Garhwal and protected areas, peripheral areas in central and south-western dooars (North Bengal) as high "human-leopard conflict risk zones". This analytical procedure can be adopted in other sites to identify potential human-carnivore conflict risk zones.
人类被杀是人与豹冲突的决定性和最关键的表现形式，需要谨慎处理，以维持印度当地对豹保护的支持。本研究旨在调查印度喜马拉雅地区（IHR）人类被杀和受伤的生态方面、这些地点的空间特征和模式、攻击的时间和季节性趋势以及当地社区对豹的看法。我们调查了两个地点：i）西部的 Pauri Garhwal 和 ii）东部的北孟加拉（Dooars），汇编了有关人与豹冲突记录的二手数据，并对（N=101）冲突地点进行了实地访问。我们还在每个地点进行了（N=186）半结构化问卷调查，以评估当地社区对豹的看法。我们使用二元逻辑回归框架中的稀有事件模型分析冲突数据，以了解 Pauri Garhwal 和北孟加拉的此类事件的空间模式。2006-2016 年，Pauri 每年因豹袭击而受伤和死亡的平均人数估计为 11 人（SE 1.13）和 3 人（SE 0.6），而在北孟加拉，2004-2016 年的估计数分别为 70 人（SE 9.2）和 1.6 人（SE 0.3）。北孟加拉的 97%左右和 Pauri 的 60%左右的豹袭击导致人类受伤。Pauri 的大多数豹袭击受害者是儿童和年轻人，而北孟加拉的受害者是中年茶园工人。Pauri 的豹袭击事件主要发生在密集灌木丛覆盖的地区附近，而在北孟加拉，这些事件则发生在茶园内。Pauri 因豹袭击而死亡的人数比例较高（40%），而北孟加拉的这一比例仅为 3%（3%）。Pauri 有 41%的受访者和北孟加拉的 75%的受访者对豹的存在和保护持积极态度。预测风险图显示，Pauri Garhwal 的中心和北部地区以及保护区、中央和西南部的外围地区（北孟加拉）是高“人与豹冲突风险区”。这种分析程序可以在其他地点采用，以确定潜在的人与食肉动物冲突风险区。
