Just like the Junnar-Ambegaon belt, Shirur too has become a center of human-animal conflict in the region. According to man-animal conflict data, three of the eight fatalities in Pune district this year since March have been reported from Shirur, while five are from the Junnar-Ambegaon area, all of which fall under the jurisdiction of the Junnar Forest Department.
In Shirur, Jambut and Mandangaon Farata villagers are emerging as the crucial hotspots for human-leopard conflict. Among three human deaths reported in Shirur, while two have been reported in Mandangaon Farata village, the third one was reported in Jambut village of Shirur tehsil.
Jambut village also has a history of leopard attacks and as per the officials at least five attack incidents took place in this area in the last five years apart from regular sightings. This year A 55-year-old woman was killed in a leopard attack on August 26. On the same day, an elderly man was injured in a leopard attack at Kanhur Mesai village in Shirur on August 26.
In Mandavgan Farata, a seven-year-old boy died in a leopard attack on October 18. Recently two separate incidents occurred in the same village highlighting the rising leopard conflict scenario in this village. In a viral CCTV footage, two leopards were seen following a man who was riding a two-wheeler at night in the Gokulnagar area of the village. Confirming this incident the forest department said, “The incident occurred on the night of November 14. We spoke to the person involved in the incident and took the necessary details so that trap cages could be installed in this area. In another incident, a four-year-old boy died in a leopard attack in the Tembhekar Vasti area, which was just one and a half kilometers away from the earlier incident site.”
Smita Rajhans, assistant conservator of forest, Junnar forest department said, “The number of such tragic incidents is certainly rising in Shirur and we are now increasing our mitigation efforts in Shirur tehsil as well. The Sugarcane built is huge in this area almost more than double the forest area and the growing sugarcane production as well as the leopard population is putting a great challenge for us. We have now scaled up the leopard capture operation in villages around the Mandavgan Farata area. A team has been set up after the last attack incident to create awareness among the villagers.”
Apart from human deaths, livestock and crop damage are also increased in Shirur. Overall, the increased leopard attack has had an adverse impact on the lives of villagers in Shirur and it is also predicted that this conflict scenario is likely to expand outside Shirur as the leopard sightings have also increased in Daund tehsil as well.
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Staff crunch and increased leopard population are major challenges in Shirur.
As the man-animal conflict increases Shirur, the Forest department is struggling with managing the conflict situation in this area. Staff crunch and the growing leopard population are two major challenges the department is facing right now. Speaking about staff availability, Smita Rajhans said, “Currently Shirur range has 9 forest guards and 4 circle forest officers. The distance between the division office in Junnar and the Shirur ranges between 60-125 km depending on the conflict area. This has also put logistics challenges in case of conflict scenario.”
