Increasing Man-animal Conflict is a Sign of Disasters Waiting to Happen

I am writing this from my farm in Wayanad as the villages around me are in the grip of terror of wildlife incursions.

- Anand Neelakantan

There have been three tiger attacks where two women have succumbed to a man-eater, a few wild elephant attacks that have claimed a life, and a leopard has maimed another, all in the last two days. The fear among the locals is palpable.

For most of the year, I stay in the safe confines of my highrise apartment, and the world looks different from there than how it looks from where I am now. In my Mumbai apartment, where I have no fear of being stomped to death by a wild elephant or becoming fodder for a ravenous tiger or a pack of wolves, I had found it easier to pontificate on animal rights and feel enraged about the pesky humans who can't love animals as much as I do. After all, I don't earn my living foraging the forest for honey like the tribals do or practice sustenance farming to feed my family. Why should I care about the wild boars that come in droves through a carefully tended farm of a marginal farmer and wreak havoc on his livelihood? I am not riding through winding jungle roads, alone on a bike, through biting cold and mist at midnight after my shift as a watchman in a distant estate. So why should I care about the lurking tiger or leopard at the next turn?