I’m receiving many messages re the killing of the leopard yesterday in Chandragiri, Kathmandu valley. Until there’s more details, no comment on that case but it seems to be the same old situation of everybody blaming everybody else. What I will say is this, these types of killings are happening throughout the Indian sub-continent and are indicative of the plight of the leopard. I’ve even been to a case before in that area, it’s not the first time and god knows how many cases roll through, many don’t hit media. Having witnessed revenge killings with my own eyes it is a brutal statement of humanity because the leopard is an animal, through no fault of its own, which has run out of room. We’re working hard on coexistence models but they can only work if there is a stepping back by humanity, a new regard for nature. The models work in those situations but my fear is even with this pandemic the message to humanity about our treatment of nature is not getting across. It has to, we cannot go back because if we do we’re stuffed.

Appended a few hours later:

And a few hours later again, enough for now…