KOCHI: Kerala is yet to evolve effective protocols to deal with emergency situations when carnivores stray into human settlements.

 

The killing of a leopard in Pathanamthitta on Saturday once again exposes poor reaction mechanism to deal with such situations.

 

The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF) had issued a circular on April 18, 2011, suggesting broad guidelines for dealing man-leopard conflicts.The MoEF guidelines outline a three-pronged strategy. "Awareness generation amongst local communities, media, and officials of various government departments is vital to educate stakeholders about the issue," it said.

 

"The second important component is establishing two trained teams to handle conflict emergencies. The Primary Response team (PR) should consist of local community representatives trained in crowd management. Their basic role will be to secure the area before the arrival of the Emergency Response (ER) team."

 

The ER team comprising forest department officials and trained veterinary staff, will need to deal with the animal in a situation-specific manner.

 

"Whenever a wild animal strays into human settlement, it is often the crowd who manages the whole situation. Hardly any efforts are seen being made to keep off the crowd to control them," P S Easa, wildlife expert with the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), told TOI here.

 

Jayachandran of SPCA Idukki district said there was total lack of coordination between various departments in such situations. For instance, when a leopard strayed into Thodupuzha area couple of years ago the authorities chose to wait till the tranquilization specialists came from Thrissur. This was despite the fact that the close-by district level office animal husbandry department had the expertise and equipment to the tranquilize animals.

 

When contacted, the PCCF and Chief Wildlife Warden V Gopinathan, told TOI here that the forest department has circulated the MOEF guidelines to different forest offices in the state. "But it is difficult to control the huge crowd in such situations in Kerala. They are so excited and irate, and any agency will find it difficult to persuade them remain calm in such situations."