Sunil Limaye (ex- Forester and Wildlife Conservationist) is a tad amused when we say that forest rangers have occupied a larger-than-life persona in pop culture for years. From ‘The Forest Rangers’ (1942) starring Fred MacMurray to ‘Sherni’ (2021) starring Vidya Balan, forest officers in their myriad roles have captivated viewers as they tackled conflicts in deeply hostile forests. Limaye agrees that most forest rangers deal with intense pressures and obstacles of all kinds which is probably why they are amazing role models across generations, but his own role as an Indian Forest Service Officer involved a good deal of administrative duties, instilling awareness in rural and urban groups about conservation and sustainability, and devising strategies to mitigate human-animal conflicts.

 

“A doctor or a teacher is a professional discharging his or her particular duty towards mankind,” says Limaye. “A forest officer is a professional discharging duty towards the forests and its inmates.”

 

On a lighter note, he adds,” Whereas nature-lovers pay to visit forests and see the tiger and other wild animals, we are paid by the government to go to the forest, often live within areas off limits for most people, and keep a watch on wildlife.”

 

Sunil Limaye joined the Indian Forest Service in 1988 and underwent his training at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNAF) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. What followed was a career spanning three decades in several senior roles in different national parks and forest reserves in locations across Maharashtra. He describes his career as “very rewarding” as it afforded the chance to be close to nature and safeguard it while serving the nation.

 

‘Living with the Leopards’ at SGNP

 

 “You cannot teach the leopard,” said Sunil Limaye a couple of years ago in context to the leopard attacks in Mumbai vicinity. This has slowly become a catchphrase today in matters of awareness of human-animal conflict. What did he exactly mean? Could he elaborate? “It is a fight for space both for the animal and the human,” he says. The human-forest interface is a zone of considerable challenge in an increasingly urbanizing world. As larger cities become increasingly congested and start straining at the edges to provide a good quality of life to inhabitants, they keep pushing into forest areas. Then, the friction starts.

 

This is what happened to Mumbai, he tells us, as the bustling metro gradually crept into adjoining animal corridors (safe passages for wild animals to transit from one habitat to another) and wildlife habitation areas. Invariably, this created a sustainability threat to both animals and humans. Leopards who were the original inhabitants of the area begun attacking humans. The area soon witnessed several human-animal conflicts with leopards straying into areas of habitation and resultant deaths.

 

So, when he joined as Chief Conservator of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in 2002, an important task that he undertook along with a dedicated team of specialists was the formation of a group called ‘Mumbaikars for SGNP’.  The project started off by provided a humane face to the scientific drive that aimed to integrate both urban development and environmental preservation in the area.

 

A year down, Sunil Limaye with his team members and colleagues that included Vikas Gupta and Anwar Ahmed, both forest and wildlife experts themselves, renamed it ‘Living with the Leopards’.

 

“One cannot teach the leopard. However, this does not apply to people. I believe human-wildlife conflicts do not take place because of wild animals. They do, essentially, because of us,” says Sunil Limaye. In other words, human beings can learn and adapt to altered and degraded environments instead of expecting wildlife to rehabilitate itself in a landscape that is unfamiliar to them. 

 

Limaye maintains that wild animals are instinctively shy of humans. Even large animals like elephants and rhinos prefer to stay far away from human contact. They attack instinctively when they feel trapped or threatened. Much is the case of leopard attacks in SGNP and adjoining areas. A leopard on the prowl comes across a man crouching in the dense vegetation, mistakes it for danger, and goes on the defensive.  “We have discovered that in 99% cases, it is human beings who are at fault,” he asserts.

 

Needless to say, the project that included a massive awareness drive to sensitize the population living in the wildland-urban interface and harmonize the zones was started in 2011. An elaborate list of dos and don’ts was drawn up that included bright illumination of public areas after nightfall, keeping trash covered securely, tying up domestic animals in safe enclosures, not defecating in open spaces, and not allowing children to venture about alone.

 

“We can either counsel human beings or we can counsel the leopard. Since the latter is simply not possible, we can do the former to keep the leopard away from us,” says Sunil Limaye.