A Troubling New Normal In Uttarakhand

Leopard (Tendua)

• Nature: Elusive, highly adaptable, and opportunistic hunters.
• Habitat shift: Displaced from deep forests by rising tiger populations, many now live near villages.
• Human conflict: Known for fatal attacks, especially on children and women in rural areas.
• Strengths: Speed, stealth, and ability to climb trees.
• Weaknesses: Avoids direct confrontation with larger predators like tigers.

Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus)

• Nature: Highly aggressive, especially when surprised or defending cubs.
• Habitat: Arboreal lifestyle but often forages near forest fringes.
• Human conflict: Causes severe maulings, leaving survivors with long-term injuries.
• Strengths: Raw strength, powerful claws, and endurance.
• Weaknesses: Less stealthy, more likely to be detected before attack.

The Paradox of Tiger Success

• Tiger numbers rising: In Uttarakhand’s Corbett and Rajaji national parks, tiger populations grew from 442 in 2018 to over 560 by 2023.
• Conservation milestone: This is hailed as one of India’s biggest conservation victories, showing that protected areas and strict anti-poaching measures can work.
• Leopards pushed out: With tigers dominating prime forest territory, leopards — less powerful but highly adaptable — are forced into village fringes and human settlements.
• Shift in conflict: Human–wildlife conflict in Uttarakhand was once framed around tigers, but now leopards and Asiatic black bears are the main sources of attacks.
• Fatal vs. mauling encounters: Leopards often kill, while bears maul, leaving survivors with lifelong injuries
• Conservation dilemma: Protecting one species (tigers) without integrated planning has destabilized the broader ecosystem.

The "Core vs. Fringe" Concept

• Wildlife Displacement: Successful conservation in core areas (like Corbett and Rajaji) has led to predator saturation. Dominant tigers now hold prime "core" territories, forcing leopards and younger tigers into the "fringe" buffer zones near human settlements. As of 2026, an estimated 79% of Uttarakhand’s leopard population resides outside protected areas, increasing human-wildlife conflict.
• Infrastructure-Driven Displacement: Large-scale "core" developmental projects—such as the Char Dham road widening and hydropower dams—physically displace indigenous and local communities to the ecological and economic fringes. For example, 2025 projects like the Dehradun elevated highways necessitate the demolition of thousands of homes and the felling of 3,400 trees, pushing residents into precarious temporary living situations. 

• Climate-Induced Migration: Extreme weather events, such as the 2025 Dharali flash floods and recurring landslides, have turned seasonal migration into "structural" or permanent displacement.
• Unchecked Urbanization: The expansion of "smart city" projects and tourism infrastructure in river basins has destabilized mountain slopes, making entire villages prone to being swept away during monsoons.
• Policy Paradox: Despite Uttarakhand ranking high in national Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indexes, local activists argue that the destruction of nature for infrastructure is creating a "new identity of homelessness" for scheduled tribes and rural communities. 

• Habitat Transformation: When villagers abandon their homes and farmlands due to lack of jobs, education, and healthcare, the land quickly becomes overgrown with dense thickets, often dominated by invasive plants like lantana. These overgrown areas provide ideal cover for leopards and bears to hide and move unseen near human settlements.
• Displacement of Predators: The success of tiger conservation in core protected areas (like Corbett and Rajaji National Parks) has led to an increased tiger population, which forces the more adaptable leopards into the "fringe" areas and village surroundings. An estimated 79% of Uttarakhand's leopard population now lives outside protected reserves.
• Easy Prey Availability: The degradation of natural habitats and forests, sometimes due to development projects or forest fires, impairs the availability of natural prey like deer and boars. In "ghost villages", predators find easy alternative food sources, such as abundant stray dogs and unattended livestock, which lure them into human habitations.
• Human Fear and Vicious Cycle: Increased sightings and attacks by leopards and bears instill a profound fear among the remaining villagers, making life unsustainable and further accelerating the "palaayan" or mass migration. This creates a self-propagating cycle: more migration leads to more abandoned villages, which in turn leads to more predators, causing even more people to leave. 

• Invasive Species Overgrowth: Plants like Lantana camara have overtaken natural corridors and forest floors, choking out the native vegetation that herbivores rely on for food.
• Habitat Degradation: Forest fires, unchecked tourism, and large-scale infrastructure projects (mining, roads, hydropower) have fragmented habitats and destroyed the alpine meadows (bugyals) necessary for high-altitude prey species.
• Predator Displacement: The success of tiger conservation in core areas (Corbett and Rajaji) has pushed more adaptable leopards into the forest fringes, where they must compete for a dwindling natural prey base. 

• Domestic Animals: Leopards have shifted their diet heavily toward stray dogs and livestock (calves, goats, and pets). Dogs are now considered a primary attractant for leopards in village surroundings.
• Scavenging and Garbage: Asiatic black bears, traditionally foragers, are increasingly lured by human-made food sources, including garbage heaps, unattended orchards, and agricultural crops like maize and millet.
• "Stealth Hunter" to "Desperate Scavenger": This shift has fundamentally changed predator behavior; leopards are becoming less fearful of human presence and more volatile, moving from stealthy deep-forest hunting to scavenging on the edges of inhabited areas. 

• Empowering Local Communities: Decentralizing authority to forest officers and establishing community-based conservation programs and local "coordination committees" can ensure faster, more effective responses to conflict situations.
• Technological Solutions: The government is implementing AI-powered cameras, sensor-based alert systems, and solar fencing around villages to detect and deter wild animals from entering human settlements.
• Rapid Response and Compensation: Strengthening Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) with necessary equipment and ensuring a prompt, streamlined compensation process for loss of life, injury, or livestock is crucial for building trust and reducing animosity toward wildlife. Compensation for death has been increased to ₹10 lakh.
• Awareness and Education: Public awareness campaigns and the establishment of special parks are helping to educate communities, especially children, about wildlife behavior and safety measures to prevent accidental encounters. 

• Restoring Natural Prey Base: Eradicating invasive species like Lantana camara and restoring native vegetation and grasslands is essential to improve the natural prey base within forest areas, thus reducing the need for predators to venture into human habitats for food.
• Integrated Habitat Management: A broader, ecosystem-based approach is needed to manage habitats, ensuring connectivity between protected areas through functional wildlife corridors and restoring ecosystems like wetlands and river basins that have been degraded by development.
• Sustainable Infrastructure Development: Implementing eco-sensitive zoning and conducting cumulative impact assessments before approving large-scale projects can prevent further habitat fragmentation and displacement of both humans and animals. 

• Incentivizing Livelihoods: Addressing the root causes of migration is critical. The government's Aroma Revolution Policy 2026-36 aims to boost rural livelihoods by promoting high-value aromatic plant cultivation (e.g., Timur, Damask Rose, Mint) in designated "aroma valleys," with subsidies and marketing support for farmers.
• Economic Diversification: Promoting climate-smart agriculture, cottage industries, poultry/dairy units, and vocational training can provide alternative, sustainable income sources, making it more attractive for youth to stay in their villages and cultivate abandoned land.

Download Pdf