Abstract
Large carnivores in human-use areas make for sensational print media content. We used media reports to examine human-leopard interactions in Rajasthan, India. We extracted news reports on leopard-related incidents from January 2016 to December 2018. Incidents (n= 338) were categorized, mapped, and analysed to understand their nature and extent. We found leopard-related news from 26 of 33 districts; a majority of these were in the eastern region of the State. Most of the reported interactions appeared to be non-negative, despite losses to both leopards and people. Our results provide a synthesis of spatio-temporal patterns of leopard-related incidents, which could help wildlife managers in better addressing negative interactions. The study also demonstrates how news reports could be useful for examining human-wildlife interactions across large spatial scales.
Highlights
Conserving wildlife while simultaneously balancing human welfare presents several challenges (Peterson et al 2010), especially when large, potentially dangerous wildlife share spaces with humans (Treves & Karanth 2003)
Our study provides some key insights on leopard ecology and human-leopard interactions in the state of Rajasthan
We show that media reports can be used for quick and cost-effective information to assess the spread of leopard incidences across wide spatial scales
Summary
Conserving wildlife while simultaneously balancing human welfare presents several challenges (Peterson et al 2010), especially when large, potentially dangerous wildlife share spaces with humans (Treves & Karanth 2003). ‘Shared spaces’ by their very nature entail some amount of negative interactions between humans and carnivores (Peterson et al 2010). When these negative interactions intensify, they transform and perpetuate as negative attitudes, especially when people perceive that state agencies or managers prioritise wildlife over human safety and wellbeing (Madden 2004). Studies have quelled this notion and provided empirical evidence for an evolving concept of human-carnivore associations that demonstrate the fluid nature of the dimensions they share (Ghosal et al 2013; Athreya et al 2015; Dhee et al 2019)
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