Jungle Book 2026

 

Jungle Book 2026

This is a somewhat fanciful sequel to my previous post under Bhopal Ecology Journal series, “When a Leopard Comes Visiting…”

(Link: https://www.pkdash.in/2026/09/when-leopard-comes-visiting.html )

Recently, somewhere in the dense jungles of Samardha, not far from Bhopal, an urgent meeting was held by T-1 (Tiger No. 1), the King.

He was an able ruler, thought more and spoke less, and generally opened his mouth to kill, eat, or roar at potential challengers. So, he came straight to the point.

“These two princes have come of age and need their own territory. My jungle is not enough for them. Which adjacent territory should we capture and occupy?”

The elder prince raised a whisker and was permitted to speak by the King.

“O King, why don’t you send us to win our own territory? I could go east, and Chotu to the west—or the other way round, if he so prefers. That’s the hoary Tiger Tradition, I recall you telling us when we were kids.”

“Well, the times have changed, dear son. Earlier, we fought with rivals from our own kind. Now, we are threatened by those pathetic, weak, bipedal creatures who have grabbed much of our territory. But what can we do? They have lethal weapons which they launch from a safe distance.”

“No risk, no gain,” said the younger prince. He had heard the wise saying from the hyena, his tutor.

The panther, T-1’s Chief of Army, coughed gently. The King nodded that he might speak.

(Leopard at Panna Tiger Reserve, Mar 2026; Source: Wikimedia Commons)

“O Mighty King, with your valour and supreme strength, you have kept this jungle safe for all of us during your golden reign. Glory be to You. However, may I be bold enough to recall that the humans snatched a large part of our jungle during the reign of your great-grandfather? Why don’t we snatch it back?”

T-1 got a little red in the face, but his Army Chief had stated a fact well-known  to all the jungle animals, and he had the wisdom and sagacity to handle it with equanimity.

“But how shall we accomplish it? Do you have a strategy? What are the risks?”

“I’ve given much thought to the issue, O King. Reclaiming the glory of our kingdom is your cherished dream. What use is my life if I cannot realise my King’s desire? I’m fully aware of the many risks. It would be unwise to expose our young princes to such huge risks. So, I’ll myself lead a small guerrilla force, surprise the enemy, and snatch back the lost territory.”

“Isn’t there the formidable bypass, with huge mechanical beasts roaring and speeding round the clock? How would you manage to cross that dangerous pass?”

“Not to worry, My Lord. I still have very strong leg muscles and can sprint faster than those behemoths. I’ve also learnt to look both ways before darting across. The mechanical beasts are dangerous, but predictable.”

The meeting ended.

The Chief led the stealth operation. He was accompanied by his two sons, who could sprint even faster than Dad.

They entered the lost territory at night and positioned themselves at three strategic points in the jungle. The villagers and forest guards spotted them the next morning and were very scared. Search parties scanned the forest, drones whirred overhead, and trap cameras were set at many locations.

But the Chief and his sons, masters of stealth, eluded them.

The Chief sent a message to his King through the trusted Blue Rock Pigeon:

Mission Accomplished. Territory reclaimed.

Eco Park was closed to visitors on September 28, 2026, and remains closed.

The King has reclaimed his lost territory.

***

The current status (as on 7 Oct 2026) of Ecological Park, Laharpur, Bhopal:

Forest Department teams, supported by search patrols, drones, and 10–15 camera traps installed across a 20–25 km radius around Katara Hills and Laharpur, have been scanning the region. While locals reported sightings, forest officials have noted that some reported sightings turned out to be other wildlife, such as jackals/jackal pairs. However, pugmarks and potential big cat movement remain under active monitoring, and no animal has been caged or tranquilized yet.

A cow has been killed, but only a small portion was eaten. Maybe the forest officials spotted the kill before the leopard got a chance to drag the carcass away for hiding.

The Forest Department has prohibited public access, specifically banning morning and evening walks, as a safety precaution until the area is cleared and certified safe by wildlife authorities.

Leopard

(Source: Panthera pardus (leopard) | INFORMATION | Animal Diversity Web)

Habitat

Leopards inhabit a variety of terrain. They are most populous in mesic woodlands, grassland savannas, and forests. They also occupy mountainous, scrub, and desert habitats. They favour trees throughout their entire geographic distribution…

Each individual has a unique coat, which can be used for identification. 

Behaviour

Leopards are solitary, nocturnal carnivores. Although they sometimes hunt during overcast days, they are less diurnal in areas close to humans in comparison to uninhabited areas. They mark their territory with urine, faeces, and claw marks and communicate with conspecifics by growling, roaring, and spitting when aggravated and purring when content. They also make a rasping cough to advertise their presence to conspecifics. Leopards are most comfortable in the lower forest canopy, where they often feed, and descend from the canopy head-first. They are comfortable in water and are adequate swimmers. When hunting, leopards move with a slow, crouching walk. They can run at bursts of up to 60 km/hour, jump more than 6 m horizontally and 3 m vertically. Leopards are facultative drinkers and obtain much of their water requirements from ingested prey. Leopards have advanced vision and hearing, which makes them especially adept at hunting in dense forests.

***

 

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?

***

Dainik Bhaskar - 29/09/26

Comments

Kalyan Chakravarty, Senior Colleague

Human being is the biggest predator on earth . The lesson is to enlarge and redensify the forest habitat , not just to offer warnings not to disturb, taken as a moral homily , from the soft hearted romantics.

Subhash Khuntia, 

Batchmate and Dear Friend

Read your beautifully written blogs on the leopard, jackals and the python. On the outskirts of Bangalore, there are regular. sightings of leopards. You and Suhas Kumar, whom I know well, are spot on that we are encroaching on their habitat. In the villages of Odisha during our childhood days, jackals and other wildlife like foxes, rabbits, snakes cohabited the area, and nobody thought of eliminating them. Sometimes the jackals and foxes would grab a chicken or a duck, but that was taken as a part of life. 

When I was DC, South Canara, one part of the sprawling bungalow had a basement which was left unused, and the house was in a 30 acre forested terrain overlooking the sea. Jackals used to stay in the basement and would howl synchronously in the evenings. Once we noticed that a piece of our one year old daughter’s clothes  left to dry in the yard was missing. We were surprised, but then we discovered one day that a kite flying above swooped down and picked up a piece of cloth in its beak, perhaps to use it to fortify a nest. 

We of course know  about the rhesus macaque monkeys that frequent the trees around North Block in Delhi and enter the building in the evenings to reclaim their lost habitat of Central Ridge forest. Thanks, Prasanna for making us relive those memories.

M.M. Upadhyay, Batchmate and Dear Friend

Dear Prasanna,

Thanks for sharing this information.

Since the last few years, Bhopal citizens are aware of the presence of several tigers, with about ten in the forests skirting the city. These tigers have occasionally strayed into the city, but have not harmed any human being in the past more than a decade.

I'm sure this solitary panther will not be harming any of the encroaching residents.

C.P. Singh, 

Batchmate and Dear Friend

Thanks for sharing.

You have highlighted an important aspect of very common"' animal - human conflict" that is seen all over - especially in recently extended human settlements - usually by encroaching upon " once upon natural forest areas" by us ' civilised societies'.My own personal experiences( of Erode with a sizable natural forest areas of Sathyamangalam- Chamarajanagar ( Karnataka )Anthiyoor- burgur forest ranges and Coimbatore with 3 very dense  forest ranges- sanctuaries and national parks all surrounded by human settlements/ tea/ coffee estates  telling me the need for greater sensitisation of the human populations living in and around. They( humans living  in adjacent village areas)also have their own problems -- in those areas wild animals do come in human settlement areas often destroying their crops particularly banana, sugarcane etc at times also damaging/ attacking domestic animals /humans.  In TN detailed drill/ training/ orientation courses have been prepared and are part of the regular drill for people of peripheral villages. I am sure in MP also with so many parks/ wildlife sanctuaries / forest areas, it must have been worked out.  

Thanx for sensitising us. 

H.S. Pati, Batchmate and Dear Friend

Lucky for you, you share a natural habitat with the wild animals very close to your home. I am sure both of you can continue to enjoy the Eco Park without getting in each other’s way. 

During our last trip to Connecticut in the USA, me and Nita went out in the morning for our usual walk. We were walking along a regular two lane road which of course had very little traffic and lots of trees all around. On one side of the road there was a ravine which emitted the sweet melody of running water. On the other side of the road the jungle deepened as the slope steepened towards the top of a hillock. The place was absolutely beautiful and we were left undisturbed. But then suddenly almost after nowhere, there emerged a huge black bear almost as big as a buffalo and it came climbing out of the slope of the ravine and walked right onto the middle of the road blocking our path. Distance between us was hardly 50 metres and it was in no mood to scurry away. It stood there and looked at us. We stood there with our feet rooted. We stared back at that huge monster. After about a minute, it quietly turned and headed towards the jungle. We waited almost for 5 minutes hoping a vehicle will pass by. But nothing came and we resumed our walk heading home.

It was a thrilling experience. But the out come of it all was that our walk along that beautiful road was stopped forthwith. We had to go to the man made park for our regular mundane exercise.

Expert opinion was that had the bear been accompanied by a cub, which is quite common, then the mother would have felt threatened and would have attacked.

Sunita Tripathi, IAS (Retd)

In 2024, a leopard was spotted in Swarn Jayanti Park and the adjacent residential area. Forest department put a cage for a week , but there was no capture; and the park was opened assuming that the leopard had left !

(My Note: SJ Park is in the middle of a residential area near Shahpura lake.)

A Fable and A Journal: Home-Schooling by Mother Jackal

A Fable and A Journal

Home-Schooling by Mother Jackal

A Fable

Once upon a time, Bhopal, like most habitations on Planet Earth, was ruled by homo sapiens — the self‑styled ‘wise men’. They were mostly self‑centred and greedy; but in rare, contrite moments of compassion for other animals had created a city forest and grandiosely named it Ecological Park.

The Rulers had posted a Notice in big, bold letters Strictly Prohibiting pet dogs, vehicles, and littering inside the park. An inept painter, having won the tender by quoting the lowest rates, had painted on a few boulders in lurid colours a few animals which could be identified only from the textual declaration under the painting. Not far from a Kripaya Shor Na Karen signage met a Laughter Club every morning. Calling their morning ritual noisy would be a gross understatement! But why blame the LC; the murmur of the leaves of the gently swaying trees, and the twitter of birds were drowned as many morning walkers put their smartphones in speaker mode and listened to NEWS, spirited radio discussions on why CJP and intellectual Naxalites must be banned forthwith, Bollywood hits, and devotional songs.

Amravat Khurd village stood on top of the hillock at the north-eastern end of the forest. The villagers refused to use the new road that the forest department had built for them and continued to use the ‘No Public Thoroughfare’ road inside the park. Vehicular traffic – school buses, vans, jeeps, and two-wheelers plied throughout the day.

In this Park, there lived a pair of jackals – mates for life - who had made two adorable babies. Inside a dense grove, they had expanded an abandoned porcupine hole and camouflaged it to create a safe haven to raise their little ones. They took turns to keep vigil, with one parent foraging for food while the other stayed at home.

As per jackal custom, they homeschooled the cubs for elementary lessons. When ready for the bigger, tougher lessons of life, they must run with the parents, and travel far from home.

The cubs were happy when mother returned home, for they were hungry. After feeding them, she licked to groom the cubs, and then it was time for study.

“Do you remember yesterday’s lessons?” Mom asked.

I do, said the eager boy. Me, too, said the girl, not to be outsmarted.

Ok, you go first, she asked the boy.

“Lesson One?”

“Stay at home when parents are out.”

“Correct. Why so?” She asked the girl.

“Danger.”

“Exactly. Lesson 2?” She asked the girl.

“Keep silent but keep listening. Shall I recite the full lesson?”

“Yes.”

“Eyes Open, Ears Open, Mouth Shut – EO EO MS – for easy recall.”

“That’s right. But, why?”

“No one must know we live here. Top Secret.”

“Excellent. New lesson for today.”

“After dark, time to bark;

In the morning, return to hiding.”

“Why must we hide, Mom?”

“To keep safe.”

“Where to hide?”

“In our home, the Den, or deep in the bushes.”

“Okay, today’s session is done. Time for a little snooze. Before that, you may ask questions, if any.”

“Mom, why do we howl? Why not stay silent at all times?”

“The howl is our anthem. We sing:

Heed our howl,

Don’t play foul;

Forest is our home,

Night our time;

Don’t mess with us,

As we don’t mess with you.”

“Once upon a time, this forest belonged to us and other fellow forest dwelling animals. Those two-legged animals are very, very hungry; they chewed away our jungle. That’s why we howl in protest.”

“Mom, why do those animals howl strangely, each in a different tone and volume? Haven’t they been taught to howl in sync like us? And why are they so noisy, yapping endlessly when in a group, and muttering even when alone? No danger for them?”

“No, they’re the dangerous ones.”

“Do they bite?”

“No, worse, they are very, very dangerous. They use their upper legs to throw stones, hurl lathis, and hurt us with other strange weapons.”

“Can I go a little closer, and take a peep?”

“No, better not. Best to stay away from them.”

A Golden Jackal

An elderly couple began their morning walk at Eco Park on August 22 at 6.15 AM, a little earlier than usual. The sky was overcast, the dawn lingered, though darkness was slowly fading away.

The monsoon this year had been generous with Bhopal, the trees and plants swayed gently in gratitude, the birds sang in myriad tunes, and the animals were happy, too.

They took the track at the eastern periphery, and reached their favourite strip connecting the central circle to the Amravat Khurd road, on which the man was walking N-S, and the lady from the opposite direction, when she whispered, “A jackal!”

He turned around, and noticed a morning walker, at the northern end of the strip, shooing off an animal. He caught a glimpse of the jackal with a shiny brown coat and thick, furry tail disappearing into the bushes. He walked on the village road for a few metres hoping to see a little more of the jackal. No luck. He resumed walking, still keeping an eye for movements, if any, in the bushes.

In a few minutes, the jackal was peering at him from behind the bushes. When their eyes met, it hastily returned to hiding. Probably trying to cross the walking strip, he thought, and stood at a safe distance. Luckily, there were no other walkers on the road. The jackal noted his presence, concluded that it was safe to cross, emerged from the bushes, but instead of swiftly crossing it, turned right and gently sprinted on the open road for a few metres heading north, and thereafter, turning left, entered the undergrowth leading to a thick grove.

(Somewhere in this grove, a jackal couple might have a den with their cubs. Photo by Blogger)

When the jackal was on the road, the man could have shot a video, which he missed. But he noted her swollen teats. Probably, a nursing mother, returning from her nocturnal forage to suckle her cubs, hiding somewhere amidst the bushes.

The lady had seen a jackal at this same spot a few weeks ago, but for the man it was a first time. He was delighted.

For the elderly couple, that fleeting glimpse of the mother jackal was more than a sighting; it was a reminder that the meagre, dwindling forest still holds hope for many creatures, who school their young in silence, vigilance, and resilience.

Most humans have forgotten to listen, yet the jackals haven’t given up. They continue with their communal howl – a sad and solemn tune of protest and plea, often heard in several fringe areas of Bhopal.

***