Chengalpattu, a southwestern
suburb of Chennai on the Grand Southern Trunk road is surrounded by reserve
forests and hills, giving way to number of wildlife species living at peace.
But it’s hard to believe big cats like leopard exists! I wasn’t surprised when
the news spread about spotting leopards on the outskirts of Chennai, but I was
quite amazed nearly a year ago when I come to know about the Karadi Malai Camp
(KMC) bordering Vallam Reserve Forest on the Chengalpattu-Thiruporur Road,
through an article featured in the Hindu Metro Plus.
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| the leopard that fall into the camera-trap (image by the Hindu Metro Plus) |
Karadi Malai
Camp is a kind of home-stay-come-camp, providing opportunity to those who love
to stay close with wildlife and it is also home to the well known snake man
Romulus Whitaker, the founder of the Madras Snake Park and Madras Crocodile
Bank Trust. The Camp was run by him and
his wife Janaki Lenin, whom I used to regularly follow on the Hindu Metro Plus,
where she share her exciting stories and experience on the column “My husband
and other animals”. You may think what is the connection between leopard and
KMC? Because they are the first to come
up with a camera-trap on leopard exist, setup on their camp several years ago. The
“Karadi” is the name of their pet dog (German shepherd) which fall prey for the
leopard and as a memory they dedicated the name of their pet to the camp.
It seems the
leopard doesn’t stay at Vallam Reserve Forest alone; it has been traveling
quite many places these days to fall into the sight of human beings to scare.
For the last one year, more than 80 people had reported about the leopard
activity around the division of Chengalpattu and Thiruporur where villages
share boarders with reserve forests. But there’s no complaint of leopard attack
on human! It is believed the behavior between the leopards living in the
Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats (ranging from Orissa to Sirumalai in Dindigul, on
parts) perhaps vary, through their favorite prey remained dogs, the habitation of
leopards in Eastern Ghats aren’t remote like the Western.
I have come
across Vallam Reserve Forest and the stretch between Chengalpattu and
Thiruporur many a time when visiting my great aunt, who had then settled on the
outskirt of Chengalpattu with Vallam Reserve Forest as their rear. When there
wasn’t car, we used to take the GST road to reach their home by bus, but later
years our usually route had been through Thiruporur. Not only was it short, but
fabulous to pass on countryside, hills and forests. Not to forget my maternal grandfather village
is also on this route and it was my most favorite place then to spend our
summer vacations.
Those days we
had to change three buses to reach my grandfather village and sometime we take
vans from Kelambakkam. From Thiruporur, it was quite forest then until my
grandfather’s village junction and it used to be terrific when we travel in car
during nights. Many a time we had returned in nights from the village, when we
go on as a day visits. The road was also narrow then to allow only one vehicle
to pass at a time and either of them has to do off-road to give way for the
other and this stretch would go through pitch dark in nights, where the shining
eyes of animals would scare.
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| my old picture on chengalpattu-thiruporur (forest) road |
I used to wonder
many times what all animals are there in this forest, but until now I have seen
only bonnet monkeys, peacocks, mongooses and wild rabbits. Hence I know there
are jackals, deer and number of snakes, birds and reptiles. During our visits
to the village, our uncle there used to take us to the forest adjoin their
agriculture fields to pick cashews nuts. It was the most exciting thing for us
then and we used to look forward to this opportunity to take a stick and
venture into the forest. He also warns us to not make noise to keep away the
forest officers, punishing for entering the forest without permission. There
used to be number of deer’s in these forests, but now all are hunted down for
meat by the villagers and even there is a horn of blackbuck still lying at my
grandfather’s house.
Even during my
last drive across this route in April, I find few sign boards mentioning deer
crossing area at Illalur Reserve Forest close to Thiruporur town! Back to
leopard menace, it is believed the animal is the one that escaped from the Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur some years ago. But we can’t be sure, though the
leopard hadn’t been trapped yet; the officials of the park still maintains a
contraction message whether the animal escaped really or not. From wherever it
may comes to exists, I am quite amazed how the leopard inhabiting very close to
human habitation without disturbing each other all these years. It has also
made clear, how wonderful our ecosystems should have been, still to make
sustain a big cats like leopards in these small reserve forests, scattered
among the villages and farmlands. I wish the government shows serious concern
on protecting these forests and promote planting more saplings to maintain a
much better forest environment to welcome back the lose species of this land.
Thanks to the
Karadi Malai Camp proprietors who are already in line of promoting the
environment of Vallam Reserve Forest and creating water pools inside the forest
to help animals in dry season. It is believed the leopards don’t come out of
the forest unless their food source becomes scarce. I don’t think this leopard
is intend to attack human (since no man is injured by it), but we perhaps
come across them while they migrate from one patch of forest to another in
search of prey. No doubt that anyone would scare seeing a dangerous animal all
of sudden interrupt their way. I too wish
alike anyone, before it become a man-animal conflict (since the leopard seems
to wander into human habitation) forest official take some action that does not
disrupt the freedom of man and animal.
