Project Leopard hits a milestone with 100th pen donated to farmers
The wilderness, spread out on either side of the road, and the dry branches of scrub jungle kept beating against the shutters as our jeep made its way through the outskirts of the Yala National Park to reach a clearing adjoining the ‘Yodha Ela.’
A group of nomadic farmers rear their cattle here and aside from the constant mooing of the cows, the silence is surreal. But their lives aren’t all tranquil as the setting may suggest- faced with the threats to their livestock from leopards that venture out of the boundaries of the park, to find easy prey in the young calves.
When leopards attack, this impacts the livelihood of these dairy farmers, since the cows stop producing milk on the death of their calves. But that’s far from the end of it. Preferring to return a second time the leopards do not devour the entire carcass of the calf. And the farmers, who are familiar with their behaviour, poison the carcass which results in the death of the leopard when it returns to polish off the rest of its meal.
Within a span of three days you’d have a dead calf and a dead leopard. Everybody loses.
‘Project Leopard’, started around 12 years ago by the late Dr. Ravi Samarasinghe, renowned wildlife researcher and conservationist, to address this growing problem, is continued today by Cinnamon Wild Yala, together with Nature Trails naturalists.
Dr. Samarasinghe gave up his medical practice, to study the leopard. He had observed the rising tensions between man and leopard and realized that something had to be done. His solution was simple yet effective: making steel pens to herd in the calves. Dr. Samarasinghe had observed such pens being used in India and had experimented with them in Sri Lanka.
At the time he had spent around Rs. 27,000 per pen, but today they cost nearly Rs. 83,000 because of the rising price of steel.
Tragically Dr. Samarasinghe was killed in a motor accident in 2007. But his work was continued by his friends Sarinda Unamboowe and Darrel Bartholomeusz, who had personally contributed for a few more pens.
Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, Head of Nature Trails, Chitral Jayathileke took up the idea and expanded it with the support of the John Keells Foundation.
Chitral and his team had initially started off with Rs. 500, 000 to set up 15 pens and this was later expanded through generous benefactors. The John Keells Foundation has also contributed approximately Rs. 2.5 million over the years.
On September 20, the 100th pen was donated, marking a milestone in the project.
Though initiated to protect the leopard, the team soon realized that it also helped the farmers. “When they found this coming their way, they told us that this is an effective solution and because of that they have no reason to chase after the leopards,” Chitral explains.