Mitigating human-wildlife conflict in Sanjay Gandhi National Park
Snapshot Solution
Managing the park’s sizeable leopard population is a major challenge © Srikaanth Sekar/Creative Commons
Sanjay Gandhi National Park is located in the suburbs of Mumbai, India’s 2nd largest city. Over 2 mio. people live within two km of the park boundaries. The park has many illegal human settlements and one of the world’s highest densities of leopards. Park managers take a two-pronged approach to tackle the frequent human-wildlife conflicts: They release alternate prey, such as deer, and they capture and relocate leopards. They also conduct public education campaigns.
Last update: 14 Jan 2022
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The potential of the internet and other communication channels has been harnessed to engage and build a partnership between the forest department and the citizens of Mumbai.
As leopards are known to prey on dogs and to visit the areas outside SGNP where dogs are known to be abundant, this prey base has been enumerated successfully.
A management plan has been elaborated that specifically details the standard operating procedures for the existing leopard centre in this urban park.