Original subtitles

Across India two worlds are colliding.

Every year scores of people are killed by leopards.

And hundreds of these big cats are stoned, trapped, or shot.

I grew up in India, and I've devoted my life to conserving as wild creepers.

What interests me is the story behind the headlines.

What is it really like living with these animals on your doorstep?

And how does one of the world's top predators survive in a country of over a

billion people?

South India has been my home for 50 years.

I'd always felt safe here, at least from wild animals.

I'll never forget when that changed.

The day we suspected something went wrong is when our dog disappeared.

We actually made a complaint to the police saying that our dog's been stolen

and put in the reward for his recovery.

A few days after Kadadi disappeared, our neighbors were looking up on the hill

and saw an animal up there, which they actually thought was Kadadi and called

him. But whatever it was, it turned around and slunk off into the forest.

Soon after that, I hired a couple of trackers.

The first thing they actually found was the dog's hair on the top of the fence.

I said, well, obviously, he's jumped over, gone to the road, gotten stolen. I

mean, it all sort of added up.

But they kept finding bits of hair and eventually found Caridi's remains.

Our magnificent German shepherd, the most beautiful dog we'd ever owned, had

been reduced to skin and bones.

I have my suspicions about what had done it.

As a precaution, I started locking up the dogs at night.

Then, after nine months, the killer returned.

I turned around to go back into the

house and suddenly I heard this blood-curdling sound.

I immediately whipped around.

There was a leopard on top of Coco right there.

I grabbed Coco by the throat, and it was

raking her body with its claws.

The leopard looked up, saw me coming. I turned around to see where Janaki was. I

looked back. The leopard was gone.

There was no doubt about it.

We were living with a leopard.

Leopards are notoriously secretive animals.

They often go unnoticed, despite being more widespread and more abundant than

any other cats.

Gone for pound, they're extremely powerful.

Whether fighting or hunting, it's their sharp claws and dagger-like canines that

do the damage.

What sets them apart, though, is their sheer opportunism.

They'll eat almost anything from an insect to a buffalo, and this natural

versatility enables them to exploit our world, as my dog had just learned to its

cost.

The near-fatal attack on Coco had been so quick, I'd barely glimpsed the

leopard.

It took me months to get a picture of it on my camera trap.

When I eventually succeeded, I could hardly believe the size of the animal.

I started looking into the severity and frequency of leopard attacks on people.

And the more you look, the crazier it gets.

It seems that run-ins with these big cats are happening more often.

Fable encounters are being reported from all over the country.

In fields, villages, and even cities.

In fact, leopards now kill far more people than tigers.

Is it because we're encroaching too much into their habitat?

Or are there different factors at play?

Why is it that some leopards prefer to avoid us, while others become man

-eaters?

I'm heading first to Rajasthan.

The place I'm going to is a long way from any national park.

Yet, it's said to be one of the best spots in India to see wild leopards.

Even in rural backwaters, India is developing at a staggering pace.

When you realize that less than 5% of the country is set aside for wildlife,

it's remarkable how many large animals are still around.

Leopards have fared much better than tigers, in part because they are more

adaptable.

Around half of them, 7,000 perhaps, are thought to live outside national parks,

in more or less close contact with humans.

I've come here because it's a very similar situation to where we live.

There are a lot of hillocks around here, surrounded by agriculture, people living

everywhere, and leopards.

No one knows these leopards better than local naturalist, Davy Singh.

I've been coming here every day, morning and evening.

If I see a leopard, I get a high.

It's like having a peg of scotch on the rocks.

For nearly 10 years, Devi has been following one particular leopard.

Zara, her family, they have never disappointed me. Once I see them, I'm

very happy.

What does your wife think about you spending all this time here?

My wife knows my passion.

mad over leopards and I can't do without seeing leopards every day.

It's rare to see a leopard so clearly under any circumstances.

What's surprising though is how many of these cats seem to be hanging out here

on this one hill.

That split rock you see, that head very much looks like Zara's head.

One by one, more leopards come out to relax.

The standard line is that these are very solitary creatures. Can you tell me how

many leopards you've seen in one place?

I've seen six here. Together?

Together.

All hanging out together? All hanging out together.

That's great.

That's like a pride of lions. It is.

Perhaps leopards are more sociable than we've been led to believe.

It's fascinating to see an entire family relaxing so openly so close to human

activity For local guys like Magaram the

presence of leopards creates an obvious problem

It comes from the mountain like this.

If it comes here, it will come back here.

If it comes here, it will come back here.

To

save

the buggy, the hole is left open.

So it is done to sow inside.

What's crazy to me is that people like Magaram seem more worried about their

cows and goats than their own safety.

When I asked him about humans, he says it hasn't happened, he hasn't heard of

it, and he's not worried about it.

For centuries, this is probably how it's been with leopards across most of India.

A constant tussle over livestock, but few attacks on people.

Leopards are much more active after dark.

With two large cubs to feed, there's a good chance that Zara will sneak down

off the hill in search of a meal.

Livestock isn't always available, but leopards are adept at surviving on small

game like hares.

After a couple of hours, Zara appears without warning.

She's surprisingly close.

I try to read her body language.

She doesn't appear to be stalking us, yet I know perfectly well what a leopard

can do to a person, if it chooses.

What bothers me and the big question is, what makes a leopard turn bad? Why do

some leopards become man-eaters?

The leopards in this area are very, very friendly.

In fact, when a person steps down from a jeep, they won't come towards you. The

moment they hear your footsteps, they tend to run away into the bush.

In our area, we've never had a man-eater.

For leopards, humans would be such easy prey.

Considering how soft and puny we are, it is remarkable that most of them stick to

eating livestock.

It seems to me that in India, an ancient and balanced relationship exists between

humans and leopards.

And that to upset this relationship, something definite has to change.

To find out why things go wrong, I leave Rajasthan and head north to the state of

Uttarakhand.

When it comes to man-eaters, this place is in a league of its own.

The foothills of the Himalayas are truly spectacular, but I'm not here to enjoy

the scenery.

Ten days ago, in a remote settlement, a five-year-old boy was killed.

the latest victim in a region long infamous for its deadly cats.

This one state has by far the highest concentration of leopard attacks in

India.

About 70 people are taken every year.

It was in these very valleys, nearly a hundred years ago, that pilgrims on

their way to the holy shrines at the source of the Ganges were also stalked

by leopards.

Between 1918 and 1926, one of these leopards, the man-eater of Rudraprayag,

is said to have killed 125 people.

Its reign of terror was finally ended by a hunter called Jim Corbett.

Why these particular hills should be so cursed is a mystery.

But the numbers are pretty sobering.

When local maths teacher Lakhpat Singh Rawat lost his ninth pupil to a leopard,

he finally snapped and applied for a special permit to hunt the culprit.

By the time he got the go-ahead, three more of his students had been eaten.

It took him several nights to get a clear shot.

And in the ten years since that first kill, he's taken out a further 39 man

-eaters.

In fact, he's now the go-to man whenever there's a problem.

And he appears to be keeping himself busy.

This is the man who was killed by a woman who

was 10 years old.

This is the man who was killed by a woman who was 10 years old.

This is the man who was killed by a woman who was 10 years old.

And she was a 16-year-old girl.

She had gone to her uncle's house to see a picture.

She was coming back from there to see a picture.

So on the way, she was caught by Leopard.

She grabbed her neck again and again. Her neck was separated.

So they hid her.

So they hid her. They covered her with leaves.

And there was no one there.

She was told that no one had seen her till now.

After that, she reached the skill at 8.10 in the night.

So she was seen.

And as soon as she woke up...

An almost unbearable number of the victims in these stories are children.

There's several extremely disturbing pictures of some of the victims. And

just out of respect for the families, we would never show this to you.

It's pretty obvious that the leopard has grabbed this particular victim by the

throat and dragged the child through the forest.

These are all things that are extremely difficult to look at.

What's so puzzling and so upsetting is why there are so many attacks here.

In Rajasthan, there were none.

How is the condition of the man-eaters? Are they healthy?

Or did they break their teeth?

In the past, almost all the man-eaters used to be unwell. Not that many.

80% of them are healthy.

Why do they become man-eaters?

Because of hunger.

The main reason is hunger.

People who hunt kill their food.

Is there now just too little left in these hills for leopards to hunt?

I can imagine how a hungry leopard might be drawn to a village in search of a

meal.

But does this explain why so many humans are being attacked?

I'd expect them to come looking for cows and goats, not people.

To learn more about the circumstances of the latest attack, I'm in the town of

Gaucha.

It was here that the five-year-old boy was grabbed ten days ago, and his

relatives had agreed to talk.

The whole village came,

the police came, everyone came to look for him.

There's a dog, so they didn't call him.

No one heard a sound.

It was only the next morning that the boy was finally found.

Perhaps for a leopard there's just no difference between a goat and a human.

There is however another possible explanation for the tragic situation

that exists here.

Poaching to supply body parts and skins to Southeast Asia is happening on a

massive scale And this may be more relevant than we realize

New research on mountain lions in America shows that when big cats are

hunted intensively it can actually increase conflict Shoot a resident adult

and several younger animals tend to move in being less experienced in the ways of

people These feline teenagers are much more liable to cause trouble.

A leopard that's killed once may be more likely to return.

Luckput certainly thinks so.

It seems obvious that the man-eating leopard of Goucher has to be shot before

it strikes again.

Yet as I set out with Lakhpat, to track the leopard that ate the boy, there's a

nagging question at the back of my mind.

How is it possible to identify the real culprit?

She heard a rock falling down. She saw a tail disappearing, a dog barking

hysterically.

Shooting the wrong cat won't just fail to solve the problem.

there's a good chance it'll make it worse.

At the edge of the village, the boy's uncle

points us toward fresh leopard tracks, close to where his nephew was killed.

Lakpat claims that man-eaters only hunt between six and eight, because that's

when children are about.

In his eyes, any leopard that shows up during these hours is fair game

that's the house the one with the light on where the boy was

stationed beyond the village the track climbs steeply there are likely to be

several leopards using this area all known to each other

this is where the leopard

scratched

The problem is always trying to identify which is the responsible animal.

Are they killing the right one?

No clear paw prints are left at the scene of the attack and in any case It's

almost impossible to identify an individual leopard from its tracks

By

half-past eight we still haven't found a leopard and luck but calls time The

gaucho man-eater is still out here and I'm left in two minds

I can understand people's fear and their desire for justice.

But in the wider scheme of things, I wonder if all this shooting is just

creating more man-eaters and more misery.

I leave Uttarakhand with more questions than I came with.

600 miles south, in the state of Maharashtra, Science is finally starting

to give us some much-needed answers.

There's no jungle here at all.

For mile upon mile, it's just villages and fields.

But the sugar cane provides perfect cover.

And for an ambush hunter with broad tastes, there's plenty to eat.

In its own way, this densely settled farmland is a leopard's paradise.

Everybody thinks the leopards have to be in the jungle. They can't be anywhere

else. But nobody's told that to the leopards.

I've come here to meet Dr. Vidya Atreya.

the only person who's really studied leopards in a purely human landscape.

It's her detective work that solved a crucial piece of the man-eating puzzle.

The trouble began several years ago when everyone decided that the leopards here

belonged in the jungle and had to be sent back.

The leopards were trapped from the sugarcane areas and released in the

forest.

106 leopards were captured in three years.

Within a week or so of those releases, attacks on people started happening.

The whole year before that, there were no attacks. And then there was the steep

spike. We had 25 attacks.

The leopards were going into houses, picking up children and dragging them

away.

In the whole of India, only the state of Uttarakhand was worse.

What's difficult to understand is why should just taking a leopard from one

place and putting it in another place cause all these problems?

What effect would translocation have on a leopard?

It seems that the actual act of capturing the animal leads to stress.

People are around it. It gets injured.

Every leopard captured here suffered a terrible ordeal.

Highly stressed, the animals were taken up to 150 miles away and literally

dumped. You take such an animal, when you go put it in some forest, it's never

seen a forest in its life.

They don't know anything about that.

So they're screwed up.

Many of these release sites, they have their own leopards. It is a hostile

environment.

It's like picking you up and dropping you maybe into Baghdad. It just leads to

a much more stressed out leopard in a place that doesn't know that they're

hungry.

And the most common thing for them to find in India is humans.

I think that to a very large extent, man-eaters are man-made.

This simple idea that messing with leopards is what turns them bad is a

fascinating thought.

But I haven't forgotten about my leopard back home and what it's capable of.

The presence of a predatory animal means that problems could happen.

The risk is never zero, but if you just let them be, then the...

problems are actually very, very little.

Well, some people would make the argument, if there's even a slight risk,

then why not just wipe them all out? It's not possible to wipe them all out.

When you start killing the animals, that vacant territory is immediately filled

up. Other animals from up to 100, 200 kilometers away come and stay in that

area.

Whether we like it or not, Leopards tend to disperse out of forests.

We don't have a choice.

The leopards are going to be living near humans, and when you start killing them,

the problem escalates.

The attempt to rid these farmlands of leopards proved a tragic mistake for

all.

As well as leading to 18 human deaths, it also created dozens of orphaned and

traumatized animals.

So how many leopards are here now? At the moment we have 26 leopards that are

not releasable.

Once they grow big, then they just don't know their own strength. Sure.

Kartik Satyanarayan is co-founder of Wildlife SOS, an outfit that cares for

convicted man-eaters.

Trapping is a big problem because the minute the leopard is caught, he's just

going to go attack that trap cage like mad to try and get away.

And that's a huge problem because the trap cage is metal.

And, you know, he just breaks all his teeth, injures himself, and just makes a

complete mess of that leopard.

It's apparently damaged.

Who's this?

This is Arjun.

Sadly he's a confirmed man-eater and you can't stand in front of him for more

than a couple minutes before he displays all his fangs He still I think hates

people and of course he's handsome as hell Animals like this certainly can't

be released So what's this guy's story? This is Shiva, he's been here about

eight years now

would have probably been trapped in a very difficult situation, stoned,

probably mobbed, partly lynched, then got into a cage and lived in a cage

which is the size of a dining table for maybe three or four years before we got

him into this.

He doesn't want to have anything more to do with human beings.

Unfortunately, I think there is going to be some collateral damage when people

clash with wildlife and that will result in places like this, lifetime care

centers where you have to keep animals that can't be released.

We don't want centers like this in the future.

I think there's got to be a lot of emphasis on getting people to become

more tolerant.

Across large areas of Maharashtra, people are quietly adapting to the

presence of big cats.

Practically everyone I meet here has a leopard story.

Yet they don't seem to be living in fear.

As you'd expect, the locals are pretty clued in.

Kids don't wander around after dark.

And many people fit their pet dogs with special protection.

That's a wicked looking collar you got there. Just look at the spikes on this

thing.

Man, I can just imagine a leopard trying to grab it either the top or the bottom.

It's going to have one very, very sore mouth.

Watch out for leopards. I mean, despite your collar, you got to be careful.

At times, the local attitude toward leopards goes way beyond mere tolerance.

They actually rescue cats that land in trouble.

Deep agricultural wells are one of the biggest pitfalls around here Leopards

often fall into them while chasing dogs and fishing them out can take a lot of

time and trouble

After an all clear from the vet, it'll be set free in its own territory.

It's what works best for both villagers and leopards alike.

There are over 500 people per square mile here and a density of leopards

comparable to a national park.

So how do these cats adapt to living alongside so many of us?

When Vidya tells me there's a fresh kill right next to a village, I'm eager to

stake it out There's a chance I'll be able to see how a leopard reacts to the

presence of people It's

pitch black but our thermal camera reveals every detail in the darkness

Right now the dogs are going at it.

I'd be interested to see when the dogs actually leave. They might want to get

the heck out of here.

Leopards are not the only large carnivores thriving in this landscape.

A hyena cruises in along the main road.

Maybe it's got wind of the carcass But it gives it a wide berth

Moments later a leopard emerges to claim its meal

These sugar cane leopards are real heavyweights, larger even than many of

their African cousins.

He's tucking right in.

I'm sure he can hear us.

He's gone away from the carcass. Now he's lying down.

He might even be asleep.

There's that footpath behind. There are two people walking on it. He's got up.

He's very close to them.

They're so close, you know.

I'm sure those people don't know that.

They don't. They're walking right by.

Is he looking at them or what? I can't tell.

He's certainly faced in that direction.

Here, have a look.

He's coming back. He's coming back? Yeah.

This leopard is clearly very used to people.

Having watched the pedestrians pass, he simply continues with his meal.

This is quite a revelation to me. I'll tell you, I've just never seen anything

like it.

Watching all this makes me a lot more relaxed about leopards.

And with Vidya close behind.

I decide to take the experiment a step further.

The big cat immediately comes to check us out.

Once it's gone back to its meal, I creep slowly toward it, armed only with my

night scope.

Look away. I'm not really quite sure where he is. I don't want to turn my

back on him.

Motorbike just went by behind him. He didn't even look up.

He's hardly 40 feet away.

Doesn't seem to be worried about me at all. I'm in full view of him.

Still feasting.

This

is

a very, very different kind of leopard here.

These farmland leopards know how to blend in.

Yet there may be an even more jaw-dropping example of coexistence.

For years, I've been hearing almost unbelievable stories about leopards in

cities.

Heaving with over 20 million people, it's the last place you'd expect to find

big cats.

Mumbai is India's biggest city.

and the fourth largest metropolis in the world.

Incredibly, it also has the highest density of wild leopards anywhere on

Earth.

This urban jungle is the ultimate test of their adaptability.

This is the northernmost tip of Bombay Island.

The north of here is a quite densely forested area, and it's perfect leopard

habitat. And if they're going to come from anywhere, I would think it would be

rare.

It was the late 70s when I started hearing stories about leopards.

in the city, leopards taking dogs, taking goats.

It was much later when we actually heard of people being killed by leopards here.

Mumbai's leopards live mostly within Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a stretch

of forest that's now been engulfed by concrete suburbs and crowded slums.

It's around the outskirts of the park, along roads, and among dwellings, that

people are most likely to encounter a leopard.

For

the

most part, the cats are looking for their usual takeaway.

A slum dog a week is enough to keep a leopard well fed.

With over 150,000 strays walking around the streets, the city offers rich

pickings.

The surest way to deter leopards would be to clean up the garbage that attracts

the dogs.

But maybe this isn't necessary.

I'm curious to find out if the city dwellers are as relaxed about leopards

on their doorsteps as people in the countryside.

Equipped with a torch and a night scope, I head into a kind of buffer zone near

the southern boundary of the park.

A lot of people live in this area, and they're never far from a leopard.

It says that four leopards came by last night, first one and

then a female with two cubs. They were hanging out just a few feet in front of

the door.

He says, we're not fighting them. They're not going to hurt us, but they

definitely would come for the dogs.

It gets pretty hot and stuffy inside, so he sleeps outside every night.

And a lot of other people do, too.

People seem to be fairly laid back about leopards.

They invariably have their children sleeping between the adults.

The dogs are very important to them because they tell them when the leopards

are around. If they do hear the dogs, they'll quickly call the kids inside.

No one here is complacent.

They do take precautions.

The fact is, people have been attacked and killed right here.

But there's no great furor to shoot the leopard.

Wow, the dogs are really going nuts right now.

They're a bit hysterical.

There's obviously electrical strides.

Fresh Pugmas.

Very fresh.

Just look at the edge of the tracks there.

just a couple of minutes ago.

After just three hours of searching, I spot my first urban leopard.

The city leopard looks as relaxed and confident as any I've seen She's in her

own neighborhood in a world she knows which makes her a much safer animal

Jungle

leopards eat anything from buffaloes down to termites in cities the menu

shifts to rats, dogs, rotting carcasses, and even hospital waste.

She's going in the other direction.

Disappeared into the bushes.

I can't imagine Londoners or New Yorkers being so cool about leopards on their

streets.

As millions sleep, there are leopards here going about their business.

They're watching the world go by and hanging out on park benches.

But so long as we're not hassling them, it just doesn't seem to be a big deal.

What's particularly interesting about Maharashtra, this state, is that the

results of translocation have been an increase in conflict, more people

getting killed.

So the authorities are reluctant to do any translocation, despite the fact that

some human fatalities have taken place.

Increasing vigilance and doing their patrolling, and of course warning people

and getting people to...

learn to live with animals like this could make a difference. It may be

working.

It's just incredible to me that a large predator like a leopard can live amongst

people. And in most cases, without any big problems.

For centuries, these amazing cats have found ways to exploit our world.

Whether we like it or not, I've seen that their versatility means they're

here to stay.

Though living with leopards is never risk-free, it's only when we mess with

them that they seem to bite back.

The other half of the story is the remarkable willingness of ordinary

people to live alongside these big cats.

And for me, there's a big lesson here.

The future of animals like leopards doesn't just depend on finding space in

a crowded world.

Whether it's in my own backyard or anywhere else, it also depends on

people's capacity for tolerance.