My first leopard sighting.

27th Nov. 2008
11:56 pm

Today is a very important day in my life. It was my first leopard encounter. I don't know whether to call it an encounter but
it happened as follows:
It happened so that we were returning from the 'Khandepar Jatra (Feast) in the night in our car. I was gazing at the roadside
bushes which skirted around the huge wilderness which was soon to be converted into a garbage dump (refer my earlier post).
It would have been around 11:30 pm when I was disturbed by the exclaimed vocalizations of those in the car with me. But
before I could turn to find out the reason, the reason itself disappeared in the same bushes which I was staring at. They
said it was a leopard and looking at the size of its tail and hind quarters (These were the only parts I could see) I
suspected it to be a juvenile. I felt jealous about everyone else in the car as they had seen it fully while crossing the
road in front of our car, emerging from the steep ravine on the far side of the road & disappearing in the bushes. This is the
second account of sighting an exclusively wild animal crossing the road in this week, previous being a sambhar which I had
spotted in Anmod ghat 6 days ago. I have decided to go to have a look for it tomorrow morning while the tracks are fresh.
May be it is a start of a new phase in my life.





28th Nov (Day 2)

I got up early at 6 and started preparing to set out. College or ant other work didn't seem to interest me. I called up Saish
and informed about the incident. He agreed to accompany me. I packed and left. I got down at the place where the said
incident had happened. It is a long stretch and looks similar throughout. It took me around half an hour to find the exact
spot. But as I did, it was a great feeling which I never felt before. The night had not ditched me. It had preserved the
pugmarks exactly as they were on the loose soil at the roadside. This was the time when I felt that I would have got a camera
with me to capture how beautifully it was preserved.
I headed in the direction in which it had gone while Saish joined me. We followed the line. But didn't get any obvious
evidences as urine smell or scats, but Saish noted a broken tree. It had broken due to load imposed on it. It was very thin,
straight and less branched, on which a fully grown adult will never make a mistake of climbing in spite of having lot other
trees which can accommodate it properly. If the marks appearing on the bark of the tree indicate that it is the leopard who
broke it, then its climbing on such a tree strengthens my prediction of it being a jouvinile. Searching that area for long,
we found nothing more. There was no point in looking for more pugmarks as when you are searching for a leopard, every mark
for you is a pugmark.
We then decided to head towards the grassland from where it had possibly descended into the field and then made it for the
road. We reached the grassland which Saish calls 'Hunter's Playground' in few minutes. We inspected the area and headed for
another grassland a kilometer away. There, we found a cave, possibly used as shelter by deers. We found scats of hare, jackal,
wild cat, but no sign of a leopard. May be it is not a resident of the area. But I am not disappointed. The search is on.

The "Dump" issue

While going from Ponda to Khandepar, there is a small road going up the hill.
There is a small village their and it is an ecologically rich area.
But now as the garbage ghost is rising and there is no place to throw the garbage, the Sarpanch has decided to throw the garbage around this village.
The villagers are agitated and are opposing this act. This, nowadays, is on the rise which we have witnessed in the mining and megacomplex issues.
Co-ordinator of our nature club (GNSC), Mr. Ajay Dongre, has assured them his support to the villagers. We also will be participating in this capaign.
The villagers are capable of fighting for themselves and we will stand for the environment.
Anyone interested in supporting this campaign can join us in the village at 10:00.
I will be uploading the happenings the day after tommorrow.