In order to establish a balance between coexistence of man and animals, Mumbaikars for SGNP, an initiative of conservationists, residents and forest officials from Sanjay Gandhi National Park, has made a small feature film, capturing the journey of coexisting between man and leopard inside the park.
The documentary has stressed on the four sensitisation programmes which have eventually lead to zero human-nonhuman conflicts since past three years in the 104 hectares area of SGNP where humans are co-existing peacefully with the tribal community and residents staying around.
The documentary that largely focuses on the unique feature of the SGNP, being one of its kind reserve forests in a metro city with active wildlife also stresses on the journey of the conflict management. “After being brandished as villains initially due to increased human-nonhuman conflict, the scientific approach towards the animals and awareness campaigns held across the SGNP has eventually made people realised that the coexistence is inevitable and peaceful,” claimed the documentary.
Throwing light on the perspective of the tribal community, the seven-minute film also shows how the Warli tribes, staying inside SGNP, consider leopards as the guards of the forest. “Waghoba is a god, we pray to him. He protects forests and us, and if he eats a goat or a dog, so be it, don’t we offer food to gods ” said Shivram S, a Warli tribal who is also featured in the film.
Commenting on the initiative, Vikas Gupta, chief conservator of forest, SGNP said, “It wasn’t easy considering the tasks at hand. We had to change the perspective of residents and change the approach of residents while looking towards the issue. The initiative was successful after a careful collaboration of people, coming from different specialised fields and presenting their studies and data with people to prove that a human-nonhuman conflict can be avoided.”
