Big cats vs development

Conservation policies need to adjust for this conflict

Barely a week after the government published data showing that India has 3,167 tigers in the wild, up by 200 over the past four years, reports appeared of leopards in Uttarakhand and the African cheetah in Kuno National Park straying into inhabited areas. Neither incident has resulted in the usual havoc of attacks on livestock or humans yet, but these threats persist, requiring the animals to be tranquilised and brought back into the protected area or shot. This reality suggests that the justified pride in the successes of the 50-year-old Project Tiger, which saved the big cat from extinction, needs