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

Acute Angle

- Anand Neelakantan

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