When A Leopard Comes Visiting…

After breakfast, upon checking my WhatsApp messages, I found an advisory from Pramod, my neighbour:

“Please don’t go to Eco Park for a few days.”

He had forwarded the following photograph:

(A leopard reportedly sighted recently at Ecological Park, Bhopal)

We have been going to the City Forest for our daily morning walk for the last three months or so. While Sanjukta walks on the gravelled path preferred by ladies and senior citizens, I prefer the forlorn, uneven track running past the little pond, where I stop for a while to quietly click a few photographs of the water birds—Egrets, Stilts, Waterhens, Kingfishers and an occasional Little Cormorant.

We reach the Park around 6.00 AM, a little before sunrise, and spend about an hour there.

A month ago, we had spotted a Golden Jackal, rather close to the unmetalled road leading to Amrawat Khurd and Khajuri villages.

Link for my previous blog on the Golden Jackal:

https://www.pkdash.in/2026/08/a-fable-and-journal-home-schooling-by.html

This morning, it was my lucky day again. I spotted another Jackal, not far from the entry gate, sprinting away into the undergrowth. Maybe it had gone scavenging for food in the garbage dumps of Katara Hills colony.

Before sharing the photograph of the leopard with Sanjukta—why scare her, and give her another excuse to cancel the morning walk?—I thought it prudent to check the authenticity of the message.

“Has a leopard been sighted recently at Eco Park?” I messaged Lokpriya Bharati, DFO.

“Staff has been alerted,” was his brief, cryptic reply.

I sought guidance from Suhas Kumar, former PCCF & Chief Wildlife Warden, MP:

“Good morning. My neighbour has shared this photo and has advised me not to go to Eco Park, Laharpur for a few days. Do you think the advisory should be taken seriously?”

He replied by forwarding a message he had posted in his colony group:

“उम्मीद है इस बेचारे को अन्यथा परेशान नहीं किया जायेगा। लहारपुर ईकोपार्क का जंगल रायसेन के जंगल से जुड़ा है। कई वर्षों से तेंदुए वहाँ से ईकोपार्क आते जाते रहते हैं। किसी का कोई नुकसान नहीं करते। यदि इन्हें तंग किया जाता है तभी ये अग्रेसिव होते हैं। इन्हें शांति से जीने दिया जाये। इनके पुश्तैनी घरों पर इंसानों ने कब्जा जमा लिया है और आगे भी इनके घर उजाड़े जाते रहेंगे।

Darne ki koi jaroorat nahi hai. Ye yahan aate jaate rahte hain. Inki upsthiti ke bare me main 2017 se janta hoon. Panic failane kaam log na karen, yahi prarthna hai. Yadi log ise tang karenge, pathhar aadi fenkenge ya pas jaane ki koshish karenge to yah self-defence me attack kar sakta hai.

Agar ise yahan se van vibhag ne hata bhi diya to dusre tenduey aate rahenge.

I have written to APCCF, Wildlife to ensure that the leopard is not harassed or captured.”

I found myself in complete agreement with him, and thanked him for writing to the APCCF.

I remembered the python which Late Mr. S. D. Pateria had rescued in front of our home in 2015. It had taken less than fifteen minutes for a flash mob to gather and indulge in a bizarre selfie festival, some of them poking the reptile until it hissed and opened its jaws, protesting the harassment.

(The rescued python from Laharpur recuperating at Van Vihar, Bhopal)

Link for my previous blog on the python:

https://www.pkdash.in/2022/11/a-puzzled-python.html

More recently, following a complaint by residents of Nishatpura, the Forest Department had trapped five Golden Jackals. The next day’s newspaper carried a brief report congratulating the prompt action for capturing the wild animals that were reportedly terrorising the residents.

The report made me wonder: how had a few jackals terrorised the residents? Had there been any attack? Had poultry or pet dogs been lifted? Or was their mere presence enough to turn them into “terrorising wild animals”?

Isn’t Nishatpura in outer Bhopal and very close to a dense forest?

Who is terrorising and persecuting whom—the humans or the wild animals?

Eco Park is a small, truncated part of a much larger forest landscape of Raisen district, fragmented when the eastern bypass from 11 Miles Point towards Indore Road was built a few years ago to carry heavy traffic. The resident animals of the forest have lost part of their traditional movement corridors and feeding range, and now have to negotiate an increasingly fragmented landscape.

How far may an Indian leopard travel in search of food? Average daily range could be ten to thirty kilometres. A young leopard, in particular, may travel longer distances in search of a new territory.

So perhaps the sight of a leopard at Eco Park should not really surprise us.

Tigers, too, have been spotted and photographed near Kolar and Kerwa dams—on metalled roads carrying considerable traffic.

Wild animals do not recognise our roads, administrative boundaries or city limits.

Perhaps, then, the more pertinent question is not why a leopard has entered Eco Park.

It is: who has entered whose territory?

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