Highway Killer

Leopards in the Rajaji National Park have killed over a dozen people in the past year. Why is the big cat choosing humans over its natural prey?

- Ishan Kukreti

ON MAY 3, forest officers at the Motichur range of the Rajaji National Park found a bundle of beedis and a bag with some religious books next to the National Highway 58, which cuts through the protected area. After investigation they found that the items belonged to a traveller who was killed by a leopard. Four days later, the department captured the man-eater leopard—the fourth in just five months. Ten days later, another leopard killed section officer of the forest range, Anand Singh.

“We have identified the animal from our camera trap footage. It displays behaviour typical of a man-eater. It is old, appears diseased with a swollen throat, and is mostly spotted in the peripheral regions of the range,” says Sanatan, director of the reserve, which is just 6 km from Haridwar.

Over the past one year, leopards have killed more than a dozen people in the Motichur range. Forest officers say the figure is 11, while local residents claim it is 14. The only consensus is that leopards in the range are hunting for human flesh since 2014.

Most of the attacks have been registered in the narrow, traffic-prone stretches of the highway, says Vikas Rawat, range officer. “The highway is being widened into a four lane. Travellers tend to step out of their cars when they get stuck in the narrow stretches on the highway without realising that it is a leopard-prone zone,” says Rawat.

The reserve authorities say they are doing their bit. “The department has put up warning signboards in leopard-prone areas next to the national highway,” says Sanatan. But