Where Bin Laden hid in Pakistan, tales of ‘man-eating’ leopards
By Haq Nawaz Khan and Tim Craig, Washington Post, September14, 2015
ABBOTTABAD, PAKISTAN–Osama bin Laden hid out here formonths, if not years. But in the hills surrounding this town in northwesternPakistan, residents say they face a far scarier menace than terrorists.
With descriptive stories that bring to mind mythologicaltales of man-versus-beast, Abbottabad residents claim to be locked in aterrifying battle against Pakistan’s endangered population of leopards. The bigcats–referred to as common leopards to distinguish them from their smallercousins, snow leopards–lurk in the Himalayan foothills.
At dusk, however, common leopards slink out of the mountainsinto the farming villages that have been steadily encroaching deeper intoPakistan’s forests.
Then, resident say, they pounce–killing at least fourpeople and injuring several others over the past four years.
“The leopard just sucked the blood out of her and then shewas dead,” said Zakir Abbasi, 36, recounting a leopard attack in January thatkilled his seven-year-old niece, Saba Noor.
Embellished? That’s common in this part of Pakistan, apatchwork of communities on the country’s rugged, western frontier. As newsspreads from village to village, the line between fact and fable is oftenblurred. But with stories like this in circulation, villagers here in northernKhyber Pakhtunkhwa province are lashing out at the leopards.
Over the past decade, dozens of leopards have been shot orpoisoned in what wildlife officials fear is the systematic culling of one ofPakistan’s most threatened species. Now, officials are rushing to convincePakistanis from rural villages–many of whom are poor and uneducated–about theneed to protect even those animals they consider to be fearsome.
“The entire ecological system is being disturbed,” saidIftikhar-uz-Zaman, district forest officer in Abbottabad. “The growing humanpopulation and their intervention in the natural habitats of leopards iscausing rising attacks on humans, and people are retaliating and killing theleopards.”
The precise number of common leopards remaining in Pakistanis not known, but wildlife experts suspect it’s no more than a few hundred.What’s clear, however, is that their numbers are shrinking because of Pakistan’srapid population growth and its abysmal record of protecting forests.
About 180 million people live in Pakistan, and the UnitedNations expects that to grow past 300 million by 2050. Already, according tovarious studies, Pakistan has retained only 2 to 5 percent of its originalcover, and it’s losing about 67,500 acres of trees annually.
Small and medium-sized mammals that once flourished innorthern Pakistan, such as the Himalayan musk deer, are threatened. Now, hungryleopards are showing up around Abbottabad, which gained notoriety in 2011 whenthe U.S. military killed bin Laden at a compound here.
On the outskirts of town, in the scenic Galiyat Valley,villagers say the first sign of a leopard is when stray dogs and catsdisappear. Then attacks on livestock begin. Eventually, villagers comeface-to-face with the animals, which are naturally reclusive.
Muhammad Zafran, 45, said his father, Muhammad Jan, 65, washospitalized for six months and eventually died after a leopard attacked him inJanuary 2014.
“It was 7:15 p.m., in the dark of winter…the leopard hid inthe bushes and jumped on him,” Zafran said. “In self-defense, my father’s righthand was bitten and his head skinned, and hair pulled out by the leopard withjust one tug.”
But wildlife officials say reports of man-eating leopardsare, in most cases, overblown.
Uzma Khan, director of Species Conservation at the WorldWildlife Fund Pakistan, recently completed a doctoral dissertation thatexamined the circ*mstances behind the recent attacks.
She concluded that the leopard that killed Noor in Januarydidn’t consume her, suggesting it mistook the child for other prey. In January2011, another reported attack on a 35-year-old man turned out to be no attackat all. Instead, Khan said, the man fell and hit his head on a rock when aleopard leaped from a bush and startled him.
Khan has no record of an attack resembling the one describedby Zafran, but she said non-fatal attacks were also reported here in 2005,2007, 2008, 2010 and 2013.
But efforts by wildlife officials to dispel rumors of “blood-sucking”leopards are complicated by past attacks in which humans may have been targetedas food.
In November 2011, an 11-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boywere killed in separate attacks. In each case, Khan said, the leopard ate partof the corpse.
A series of attacks over 10 days during the summer of 2005resulted in the deaths of six women near Abbottabad. In two of those cases,Khan said, the leopard ate part of its victim.
Overall, however, research suggests someone is far morelikely be killed by a tiger in India or a lion in Africa than by a leopard inPakistan, she said.
In Pakistan, retaliation is often swift. Dozens of leopardshave been killed over the past decade; three were reported poisoned nearAbbottabad in March.
“People are scared,” said Syed Mushtaq, 38, a social workerin Bagh, 15 miles southeast of Abbottabad. “The people move in groups withsticks and guns…because the leopards don’t attack groups of people.”
To try to protect both villagers and leopards, officialshere are urging residents to remain indoors after sunset, and directingmadrassas and schools to dismiss their students by mid-afternoon.
“We are trying to educate people when it’s not safe to enterthe forests, and that little children should never go into the forests alone,”Khan said. “So, we are saying, ‘You must let children go home [from school] by2 p.m. so, if they have to walk an hour, they are home well before sunset.’”
Several of the most recent attacks occurred when childrenwere crouched down in the woods to relieve themselves. Women are attacked morethan men because they spend more time in the forests, Khan said.
“Women here have more responsibility for household choreslike wood collection, water collection and collecting fruit,” she said. “Theyhave to make breakfast for their husband or children, before school, so they gointo the forests early in the morning…We are saying, ‘Don’t go when it’sdark.’”
Though such messages may help to limit encounters in theshort term, Khan said Pakistan’s government also needs to set aside moreprotected forests.
Wildlife officials recently collared a male leopard anddetermined it has a home range of about 56 miles. Near Abbottabad, the largesttrack of protected forest is the 20-square mile Ayubia National Park.
“For a big cat to roam, you need a much bigger area,” Khansaid.
Changing the mindset of Pakistan’s government, however, won’tbe easy.
In early September, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif proposed anew highway to connect the capital of Islamabad to Murree, a resort town 40mile southeast of Abbottabad.
The new highway–and the ensuing development it would bring–wouldslice through even more prime leopard habit, Khan said.
