Bombay's Hungry Cats

The story of India's wildlife is a depressing tale of pollution, encroachment and poaching. But in the country's largest metropolis, nature is biting back. A 55-year-old beggar and a teenager were dragged off last week while they slept and were killed by leopards in Bombay's 283-hectare Sanjay Gandhi National Park, capping a deadly June in which 11 people were eaten by the predators.

The underlying problem is a familiar one in India's crowded business capital: a lack of space. Thousands of migrants join Bombay's population of 14 million every week, but built on a narrow spit of land between marshlands and the sea, the city has nowhere to grow. As many as 12,000 of Bombay's poor now live in slums inside the wildlife park in the north of the city, and the normally shy leopards, for whom food is often scarce, are developing a taste for people.

In an effort to sate the leopards' appetites, local officials are releasing boxes of rabbits and pigs into the park. Deer from the city's zoo may be next. Authorities are also trapping leopards and releasing them in other parks and forests, but a more obvious solution might be a fence. The park still doesn't have one, although $2 million was set aside for a 110-km wall in 2001. Says park ranger Vijay Gadkar: "When we don't even have basic amenities like streetlights or electricity for our own houses, fencing looks like a luxury." Right up until you meet a man-eater.