For all their fearsome reputation, long, drooping whiskers and blood-curdling snarls, leopards invariably choose discretion as the better part of wild valour if the challenger is bigger. An incident from the Jhalana Leopard Reserve, Jaipur, had unfolded with a hulky, hardy, pugnacious nilgai taking on the dominant leopard, nicknamed Rana, who without a murmur slunk away from his resting spot of dominance over a waterhole.
So, mock aggression serves, at best, as dissuasive deterrence. In Jaswal’s words: “The incident took place at Amrit Sarovar, a huge pond made by the forest department at Rajaji. The leopard charged the buffaloes whose first impulse was to go back a few steps. The leopard issued a snarl but the buffaloes being bigger realised that they could have the better of the duel. The buffaloes reversed their retreat and moved towards the leopard. The game was up. The leopard ran away! Apart from birds intruding into the terminal’s eating outlets, pecking into plates and spreading excreta, there is the fatal health hazard to humans in the guise of ‘pigeon lung’, a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis caused by the dry dust of feathers/droppings. Equally at fault are passengers who wantonly discard tidbits for birds. No advisory/warning boards have been put up to deter passengers from feeding birds. The hapless cleaning staff at the terminal literally break their backs as it is an arduous task to clean the shiny floors of sticky bird droppings. What measures have been taken to eliminate the hazard? Are airport authorities aware of ‘pigeon lung’ disease?
A big bird trap has been positioned but is not 100% successful. The airport has been functional for 16 years and it begs the question: Why has the presence of birds not been removed?
