Living with leopards in the Himalayas

A leopard attack on a 67-year-old farmer, Bulal Maharjan, near Kathmandu has underscored the escalating conflict between humans and leopards in Nepal. Maharjan recounted the terrifying incident where a leopard lunged at him, inflicting injuries to his forehead and hands. The animal was eventually trapped after causing panic and injuring two more people. Maharjan expressed a common sentiment among locals: "I think we should just get rid of this animal. Period."

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For three days straight, I couldn’t even sleep. Every time I began to doze, the scene of this attack would jolt me up! I think we should just get rid of this animal. Period.

These conflicts are intensifying as habitat expansion and climate change push wildlife into human settlements. Research indicates that from 2000 to 2020, human-large mammal conflicts in Nepal claimed 887 human lives and led to the killing of 1,139 animals. Common leopards were responsible for an average of 19 human deaths per year and were the most frequently killed species among the large mammals involved.

Nepal is exploring various solutions to manage these conflicts. The country's diverse ecological zones host different large predators, with common leopards being the top predator in the mid-hill regions. While protected areas in the lowlands and mountains receive conservation funding, the mid-hills largely rely on community forest management. This program, initiated in the early 1990s to combat forest degradation, has empowered local communities to manage forests, giving them a stake in conservation and benefits from timber and fruit harvests.

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But what the communities didn’t realise was they also restored habitats so that the top carnivores could return.

However, the success of the community forest program in restoring habitats has also led to a resurgence of top carnivores like leopards. Wildlife biologist Kedar Baral noted that community forests have inadvertently restored habitats, allowing these predators to return. An analysis of leopard scat in the mid-hills revealed that domestic animals constitute 27% of their diet, indicating a direct link to livestock predation and increased human-wildlife conflict.

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In 2020, Baral’s team conducted an analysis of leopard scat collected in the mid-hills that showed that 27pc of the animals’ diet consisted of domestic animals, while the wild ungulates that big c