The leopards of Mumbai: life and death among the city's 'living ghosts'

India’s second city is home to an estimated 20 million people ... and 21 leopards. The 250,000 residents with homes inside the boundary of Sanjay Gandhi national park must find a way to live with their big-cat neighbors.

Hawa hawa oh hawa … a 90s Hindi hit blares from the radio in Kusum’s mud house. “I play music till 1am every day,” says the elderly lady. She says she is not much of a music fan - but her loud playlist keeps the leopards away. Meanwhile, just down the road, 35-year-old Dilip Changverlekar recently renovated the house where his family has lived for generations. He added tin sheets to the roof and walls to make it difficult for leopards to climb.

Mumbai is India’s richest city and home to a human population of around 20 million, but it also contains one of the largest protected urban forests in the world. The Sanjay Gandhi national park (SGNP) spans 104 sq km - the size of 30 Central Parks - and is home to more than 1,000 species of plants and animals. Here in Chuna Pada, a tribal hamlet of 40 houses inside the park’s boundary, seeing a leopard is not a scandal but a routine, and residents receive a visit from the big cats several times a week.

The leopards were here long before millions of people turned Mumbai (which once had a sizeable population of tigers, too) into a bustling megacity. The park’s peripheral areas have never been so densely populated, and Vidya Athreya, India’s leading expert on leopard-human conflict, thinks this has led to the increase in sightings.

“Eye shine” is the easiest way to spot the cats, who have a tapetum lucidumstructure at the back of each eye that reflects light back and helps them see more clearly in the dark. “People used to go to bed earlier, and there weren’t so many vehicles or so many lights,” says Athreya.

In 2012 a forest camera-trap counted as many as 21 leopards in the park, and footage of the big cats in the slums, residential complexes and schools of urban Mumbai has shaped what many think of SGNP’s leopards. It has also given the impression that the creatures are entering the city more often than ever before. But are there really more leopards?

The presence of leopards living alongside humans is a case of two highly adaptable species sharing space, says Athreya, who calls the animals “living ghosts” for their ability to be elusive...

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The Aberdeen Green Times recently published an interesting item drawing attention to urban species that turn up unexpectedly and create a bit of a surprise. The focus of their article was the water rail, but it could just as easily have been water vole, peregrine falcon or otter that captured the headlines in an urban setting somewhere in Scotland.

The water rail story was certainly a good news piece. The bird was found to have bred not too far from the Scottish Natural Heritage office location in Torry, Aberdeen. A notoriously secretive bird, the rails bred at the East Tullos Burn Area...

We tend to think of remote mountains, glens and sea cliffs as the natural home for our wildlife, but our urban greenspaces have much to offer if you take a little time to look and listen. Although, the East Tullos site sits cheek by jowl with the high rises of Balnagask, it is rich in wildlife.

Of course the water rails aren’t the only animals to make light of urban settings. In the East End of Glasgow a colony of water voles, one of our most threatened mammals, hit the headlines by setting up home in a site which isn’t obviously linked to any rivers. There are a few terrestrial water vole colonies in the Greater Glasgow area. They effectively live underground like moles, but with no open water anywhere nearby.

Dippers are a surprisingly urban species.  Although we tend to associate them with mountain burns and the fast flowing salmon rivers they can thrive in our towns and cities if the water is clean enough and there is some kind of broken water to feed in.  Last February on a visit to Glasgow one of our colleagues saw dippers at three spots along the River Kelvin between the Clyde and the Botanic Gardens.  In two places there were pairs building nests – one bird giving excellent views as it tugged moss off the stones on the riverbank just behind Yorkhill Hospital.  At the third spot, near the bandstand in Kelvingrove Park,  a male was in full song perched on a stone in the middle of the river.  They breed early and will often start singing in January and February so if you want an early reminder that spring really is on the way get down to your local fast flowing river and listen out for dippers

There is a saying about listening to the grass growing. Whilst not advocating that, it is interesting to note that the Botanical Society Scotland has a project called ‘Urban Flora of Scotland’ calling for members of the public to record plants growing in towns with a population greater than 1000.  An example of an interesting plant to look for is the southern European grass ‘water bent’ (Polypogon viridis).  The grass has turned up on pavements in Edinburgh and there is a supposition, still to be proved, that it might be growing in towns further north; perhaps one for the dedicated plant hunter.  Due to their warmer climate and proximity to human activity some of our urban areas are the first places that some non-native species have been spotted.

In the city of Perth a pair of breeding peregrine falcons adopted a church spire as a crèche for their youngsters following successfully breeding around nearby Kinnoull Hill, whilst the Water of Leith running through Edinburgh has recently become noted for otter and kingfisher. A colleague enjoyed stunning (mid-day) views of a female otter on the Water Leith in the Colinton area just after Christmas – totally indifferent to human presence (and that of various large dogs close by).

https://scotlandsnature.blog/2016/01/11/urban-wildlife-surprises/

Is a proposal to designate Greater London a National Park City the solution to saving its wildlife and bringing people back into harmony with nature?

By Jeremy Coles

31 July 2015

The wildlife and green spaces in our cities, towns and other built-up areas matter.

They matter because as a nation we are increasingly being told that we are becoming disconnected from nature and that it is affecting our health, but not in a good way.

And who doesn’t get a good feeling from hearing a little bird chirping away, spotting bright flowers in the park, or stumbling across the signs of an otter on a walk along the river.

Land prices are ridiculously high, and pressure to develop is the greatest it’s ever been

Besides the influence nature has on our well-being, urban areas are one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the country. With more people living in cities than ever before, this diversity is increasingly coming under pressure: from building for accommodation and business, to people simply paving over their green spaces and cutting down trees.

Take London for example, with its population of over 8.6 million, it has had more than 13,000 species recorded (including 1,500 flowering plants and 300 birds), and according to the London Wildlife Trust’s director of policy and planning, Mathew Frith, it is the most species diverse region in the UK.

It’s a reflection of the city’s millions of gardens and its status as an international trading city, which has made it one of Britain's main points of entry for new species from elsewhere in the world. As a result ring-necked parakeets and Himalayan balsam have flourished and become as familiar as our native hornbeam and heather in the city's scenery.

London has an important population of stag beetles (credit: Willi Rolfes / Getty)

And what many of us don’t realise, and may find surprising due to London's size and population, is that the capital holds nationally important populations of many species: stag beetles, greater yellow-rattle, black redstart and wintering populations of gadwall and shoveler, to name just a few.

There’s no doubt that the above species, and many more, need constant monitoring and protecting. The State of Nature report published in 2013 indicated worrying declines in lots of urban species, from birds to invertebrates.

But it’s a complex picture that continues to change according to Mr Frith.

Urban peregrine falcons are on the rise, greater spotted woodpeckers and jays are increasingly found in inner London and several species of deer are making their presence known. While the River Thames is now home to 125 species of fish after major clean-ups since the 1950s.

“There’s also been upswings for some species, either occupying new niches, or recovering from previous lows," Mr Frith explains.

“Some of this reflects national patterns; others are down to changes in London, either through targeted conservation action, changes in greenspace management, climate change or urban heat."

What is clear is that the city's parks, reserves and open spaces are critically important for the continued survival of most of the urban wildlife. It’s quite extraordinary to think that 47% of London is covered by green and blue space: from wild woods and formal parks, to gardens and hundreds of Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINCs).

But Mr Frith says finding space to create new reserves is increasingly difficult.

"The situation is far different than it was in the 1980s; land prices are ridiculously high, and pressure to develop is the greatest it’s ever been.”

Space for vital reserves in London is getting hard to find (credit: UrbanImages / Alamy)

And with the the loss of connected wild areas hitting animals such as hedgehogs, bats and several bird species hard, we should not underestimate gardens as a source of biodiversity and important wildlife havens. London has an estimated 3.8 million gardens, covering 24% of the capital, but these are also undergoing worrying changes with a third of them now paved over.

What can a city, as big and diverse as London, do that’s good for both nature and the people that live and work there?

A new kind of National Park

One solution might lie with an interesting proposal for Greater London to be designated a National Park City, an idea that is rapidly gaining support in the capital. The driving force behind this innovative scheme is Daniel Raven-Ellison, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer and former Geography teacher.

And Greater London’s credentials are certainly impressive: it is 1,572 square kilometres in area, of which nearly half is green and blue (rivers and ponds) space. There are two National Nature Reserves, 142 Local Nature Reserves, 1,400 SINCs, 3.8 million gardens, 8.3 million trees and the list goes on.

Mr Raven-Ellison explains that a Greater London National Park would be a new kind of urban National Park, similar to the other 15 National Parks but not requiring legislation or having any formal planning powers. However, it would be a semi-protected area with all of the public activities and conservation efforts that take place in a traditional National Park but in an urban environment, which includes people's homes, workplaces and gardens.

London has an estimated 3.8 million gardens (credit: david martyn hughes / Alamy)

He suggests that the project would be about encouraging people to welcome wildlife, examples include making it culturally acceptable to build swift bricks into new houses or having holes in fences for hedgehogs. Think of it as a set of recommended practices that could naturally connect open spaces and gardens. It’s a long-term vision that’s achieved through lots of small, individual actions: digging up concrete paving, planting flowers or not chopping down trees.

But think even bigger and large-scale projects could turn reservoirs into wetland centres and industrial complexesinto Sites of Special Scientific Interest, where people can visit and volunteer if they wish to.

The massive shift for this is that it’s about recognising the value of urban wildlife

“The massive shift for this is that it’s about recognising the value of urban wildlife, and acknowledging that people live and work in cities, every one of those people is an opportunity to bring about change,” Mr Raven-Ellison says.

He says that although people currently want to protect their parks and green spaces, their importance to wildlife needs to be better understood, particularly as the city's population continues to grow. Increasing or improving habitats doesn't need to conflict with new building work though, as there are some simple changes that can be made to make the construction and design of our communities more sustainable.

Take London’s four million gardens, they are an essential component of the city’s green spaces, but a third of them are now paved over or covered in artificial grass. Mr Raven-Ellison says the potential to “re-wild" the city is huge.

“People protect what they value and what the National Park City will do is help people value wildlife and green spaces," he says.

People protect what they value and what the National Park City will do is help people value wildlife

“The acid test for our success must surely be that we have more hedgehogs, water voles and otters in our rivers, but there might be some individual losers."

The presence of otters is a sign of success (credit: Chris Mellor / Alamy)

Mr Raven-Ellison says that Greater London meets many requirements for becoming a National Park and is now seeking political support from London’s electoral wards and the Mayor of London for his proposal.

“Ultimately in doing that we'll be making London a phenomenally better place to live for all of us, no matter how many legs we’ve got,” he says.

The framework for a successful London National Park City could be used by other cities across the globe applying for the status.

There are already examples of urban National Parks elsewhere in the world: the US and Canada has them in, and alongside some cities; Singapore has public spaces managed by the National Parks Board; and in Scandinavia there are green corridors going through large parts of some cities. However, this would be the world’s first National Park that encompasses an entire city.

Another way

For London Wildlife Trust any National Park City proposal cannot solve all the problems that affect nature in London, but it can help to raise awareness and cultivate more sensitive approaches to the way that we design and manage the city.

“It needs to add value to the collective efforts that have been conserving and promoting London’s nature for decades, and not duplicate these efforts,” says Mr Frith.

He welcomes any proposal that raises awareness and understanding of what nature is in London and how it makes a city a beautiful place to live, work and play.

It could potentially raise our awareness of just how green London is

“It could potentially raise our awareness of just how green London is, and therefore translate into behaviours that would maintain and sustain that greenness against the pressures railing against it.”

But while he accepts that replicating existing National Park powers would confer greater protection for London's green spaces, he warns that it is unlikely to gain traction, given current government policy and priorities.

Raising awareness of how green London is (credit: Robert Harding World Imagery / Alamy)

“Greater awareness might also result in quiet and relatively undisturbed places (in which wildlife flourishes) being adversely impacted. I, personally, like the fact that there are still ‘undiscovered’ tracts within our capital. So as long as we don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” he says.

But is this the only solution?

While the Trust encourage any proposals for a greener London and support the emphasis on education, they, along with the other Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), are pushing for a Nature and Wellbeing Actduring this parliament.

This proposed piece of legislation aims to bring about the recovery of nature within a generation, for the benefit of people and wildlife. It states that bringing back nature benefits the whole of society and therefore needs to be a priority for the government.

The partnership believes that changing a few policies is not enough to halt the loss and start the recovery; nature needs to be at the centre of how our country is run, putting wildlife habitats back into the landscape.

Greater awareness might also result in quiet and relatively undisturbed places being adversely impacted

The Act would influence how decisions are made about health, housing and other development, education, economic growth, flood resilience and every community. With the aim of connecting people with nature and the overall benefits that brings.

“If enacted as proposed it might have far more reaching impacts than a National Park City, and apply across England rather than just London,” Mr Frith says.