Operation Leopard
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Your Mission: Operation Leopard Destination: Sanjay Gandhi National Forest, Mumbai Local contact: Young Innovators Foundation Priority Status: Urgent, life and death consequences Briefing details: Enclosed Operation Leopard Briefing memo Operation Leopard Terminology MKP1 = Masti ki Paathshala (fun, learning center), a YIF-operated school for tribal population in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park next to Mumbai, India. Tumni Pada = Name of informal village inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park where students of MKP1 live. YIF = Young Innovators Foundation, a non-profit youth empowerment organization founded by Ritika Arya and staffed by dozens of young social innovators. Briefing memo from Ritika Arya of YIF: We walked along with the children to the source of water in the jungle and this is what we learnt first hand: 1. The approx. distance for the people walking from Tumni Pada to the “tank”, a natural spring well water source, is 1 kilometer so they need to walk approx. 2 kilometers (going and coming) in order to fetch water. The water is not potable so villagers boil it prior to drinking it. 2. The children said that often times their parents have seen the leopard drinking water from the same source. 3. The elders go to fill water at dawn, usually the kids are not sent, and they go in groups, carrying sticks with them. The children said that they make sounds using their mouth, using the pots and sometimes hit larger stones on the way with the stick. 4. Many who have cycles load the water back on their cycles and the rest come back on foot. 5. At any given time the elders carry about 20 to 30 litres of water back home, sometimes the water lasts until afternoon and sometimes unto evening when they go back to fetch more. Mostly children go later in the morning, in the afternoon or in the evening, always in groups of 2-3 or more. 6. On an average each household needs about 60 litres of water each day for drinking, bathing, cooking, washing clothes, utensils, and watering their plants. 7. The water is fetched in metal pots and plastic containers on their head and around their waist usually. 8. We have been able to share only the path from Tumni Pada to the source and back but the children disclosed that there are many remote villages in the national park (that are worse off in terms of connectivity and access to resources) that rely on other sources and also this one that they rely on. 9. There are about 81 people living in this village and about half or more than half the number comprises of children. Every village has a different population; this one is one of the smaller ones. 10. Leopard attacks have occurred on the path and as close as in the village itself. Approximately twenty five attacks have occurred in recent years. Page 2 of 9 Operation Leopard Briefing memo 11. The people at Tumni are not permitted to cut down trees but can collect fallen branches and sticks as fuel wood. They can cut from an already fallen tree. They do have vines and long branches around that they can and do use. Typical income in Tumni pada is anywhere between 4500 and 7000 Indian Rupee ($1 US Dollar = 55 Indian Rupee) per month depending upon the work they do and also the season. With this income, the villagers eat rice and lentils. Occasionally, they can afford to eat vegetables and fruit. They cannot afford meat. 12. Most families borrow money from a neighbor to even out cash flow shortfalls due to the irregularity of their work. This means that most families have times when they don’t have enough money to meet their basic needs, so they borrow money from neighbors who happen to have a small surplus of money at that time. Neighbors are willing to loan each other money even though they are poor because they all have suffered cash shortfalls during the month and thus rely on each other for short term loans which they pay back over weeks and months. As a reference, those who live on the streets in Mumbai earn approximately 1500 Indian Rupee per month, which is insufficient to meet their basic necessities. 13. The adults typically walk 2 – 3 kilometers to Mumbai to work each day. The men usually wait on street corners hoping to obtain work as day laborers performing manual work for just that day. Often the men find no work for that day. The women usually work as domestic servants in the housing societies (high-rise apartments for middle-income families). During the day, the children are left on their own back in the villages. There are no schools for them other than the MKP’s operated by YIF. 14. The bicycle in the photos was rented by Ritika and her volunteer team for the day in the jungle. Most villagers have difficulty affording bicycles. Please note that as the problem gets solved in one place, the solution can be adapted to help the other villages. Page 3 of 9 Operation Leopard Briefing memo Leopard From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard The leopard (pron.: /ˈlɛpərd/), Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genusPanthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its range of distribution has decreased radically because of hunting and loss of habitat. It is now chiefly found in sub-Saharan Africa; there are also fragmented populations in the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia, and China. Because of its declining range and population, it is listed as a "Near Threatened" species on the IUCN Red List.[1] Compared to other members of the Felidae family, the leopard has relatively short legs and a long body with a large skull. It is similar in appearance to the jaguar, but is smaller and more slightly built. Its fur is marked with rosettes similar to those of the jaguar, but the leopard's rosettes are smaller and more densely packed, and do not usually have central spots as the jaguars do. Both leopards and jaguars that are melanistic are known as black panthers. The species' success in the wild is in part due to its opportunistic hunting behavior, its adaptability to habitats, its ability to run at speeds approaching 58 kilometres per hour (36 mph), its unequaled ability to climb trees even when carrying a heavy carcass,[2] and its notorious ability for stealth. The leopard consumes virtually any animal that it can hunt down and catch. Its habitat ranges from rainforest to desert terrains. Description Leopards are agile and stealthy predators. Although they are smaller than other members of the Panthera genus, they are able to take large prey due to their massive skulls that facilitate powerful jaw muscles. Head and body length is usually between 90 and 165 cm (35 and 65 in). The tail reaches 60 to 110 cm (24 to 43 in) long, around the same length as the tiger's tail and relatively the longest tail in thePanthera genus (though snow leopards and the much smaller marbled cats are relatively longer tailed).[3][4] Shoulder height is from 45 to 80 cm (18 to 31 in). The muscles attached to the scapula are exceptionally strong, which enhance their ability to climb trees. They are very diverse in size. Males are about 30% larger than females, weighing 30 to 91 kg (66 to 200 lb) compared to 23 to 60 kg (51 to 130 lb) for females. Large males of up to 91 kg (200 lb) have been documented in Kruger National Park in South Africa; however, males in South Africa's coastal mountains average 31 kg (68 lb) and the females from the desert-edge in Somalia average 23 to 27 kg (51 to 60 lb). This wide variation in size is thought to result from the quality and availability of prey found in each habitat. The most diminutive leopard subspecies overall is the Arabian leopard (P. p. nimr), from deserts of the Middle East, with adult females of this race weighing as little as 17 kg (37 lb).[5][6] Other large subspecies, in which males weigh up to 91 kg (200 lb), are the Sri Lankan leopard (P. p. kotiya) and the Anatolian leopard (P. p. tulliana). Such larger leopards tend to be found in areas which lack tigers and lions, thus putting the leopard at the top of the food chain with no competitive restriction from large prey items.[7] The largest verified leopards weighed 96.5 kg (213 lb) and can reach 190 cm (75 in) in head-and-body length. Larger sizes have been reported but are generally considered unreliable.[8][4] The leopard's body is comparatively long, and its legs are short.[9] Leopards show a great diversity in coat color and rosette patterns. Their rosettes are circular in East Africa but tend to be squarer in southern Africa and larger in Asian populations. Their yellow coat tends to be more pale and cream colored in desert populations, more gray in colder climates, and of a darker golden hue in rainforest habitats. Overall, the fur under the belly tends to be lighter coloured and of a softer, downy type. Solid black spots in place of open rosettes are generally seen along the face, limbs and underbelly.[5] Leopards may sometimes be confused with two other large spotted cats, the cheetah, with which it may co-exist in Africa, and the jaguar, a neotropical species that it does not naturally co-exist with.