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Sunday, 15 February 2015

Copenhagen Shooting Suspect Killed By Police After Two Deaths Including One At Synagogue



Lately, and tragically, not a month can pass in Europe without some deadly, mass shooting event whose inspiration is supposedly racial hatred.



One month after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris which left 20 people dead, another series of deadly shootings rocked otherwise quiet Copenhagen this weekend, where the person suspected to be responsible for the death of two people and injuring five first at a freedom of speech event and subsequently, at a synagogue in Copenhagen, was killed by police early in the Sunday morning hours.


According to NBC, police said the suspect opened fire on officers as they were monitoring an address in Norrebro while investigating the two shootings. Authorities did not identify the suspect, who was killed when police returned fire.


The first shooting happened before 4 p.m. Saturday when the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cultural center during a panel discussion on freedom of expression featuring a Swedish artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. The artist, Lars Vilks, was whisked away unharmed by his bodyguards but a 55-year-old man attending the event was killed, while three police officers were wounded, authorities said.


Vilks, 68, has been the subject of death threats for his previous caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog. He was not injured in the shooting, which the Danish prime minister described as a "terrorist attack." Vilks told The Associated Press that he believes he was the target of the shooting. "What other motive could there be?" he said, and referred to the attacks on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January. Vilks has been threatened before: a Pennsylvania woman last year got a 10-year prison term for a plot to kill the cartoonist. In 2010, two brothers tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden and were imprisoned for attempted arson.


The attack at the synagogue occurred hours later, shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday. Denmark's Chief Rabbi, Jair Melchior, identified the Jewish victim as Dan Uzan, 37, a longtime security guard for the 7,000-strong community. He was guarding a building behind the synagogue during a bat mitzvah when he was shot in the head. Two police officers who were there were slightly wounded.


About four hours later, the shooter was confronted by police as he returned to an address that they were keeping under surveillance. Investigators described him as 25 to 30 years old with an athletic build and carrying a black automatic weapon. They released a blurred photograph of the suspect wearing dark clothes and a scarf covering part of his face.



The alleged suspect captured here in a closed-circuit camera.


"We are working under the assumption that it was the same perpetrator who was behind both shooting incidents," said Police Commissioner Torben Molgaard Jensen. "And we are also working under the assumption that the perpetrator who was shot by SWAT police...is the person who carried out these attacks."



More troubling, just like in the Charlie Hebdo murders, the gunman was said to be have been inspired by Islamic radicalism according to Jens Madsen, head of the Danish intelligence agency PET.


"PET is working on a theory that the perpetrator could have been inspired by the events in Paris," Madsen said, according to the AP. "He could also have been inspired by material sent out by (ISIS) and others."


At a news conference Madsen also said investigators have identified the suspect and that he is someone who had been on the agency's "radar." He did not reveal his identity.


The attacks took place two days after Denmark and its partners in the European Union agreed to dramatically boost cooperation in the counter-terrorism field as a result of the January attacks in Paris, which claimed the lives of 17 victims.


The EU's law enforcement agency, Europol, said Sunday it was in contact with Danish authorities and proposing its help to find out as much as possible about the Copenhagen gunman and whether he was acting alone or in concert with others. "We are offering our expertise and capabilities from our anti-terrorist unit including access to our databases," said Europol spokesman Soeren Pedersen.


Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt put the entire nation on high alert and on Sunday visited the scene of the synagogue shooting. "Denmark has been hit by terror," she said. "We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator's actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark. They want to rebuke our freedom of speech."


The U.S. condemned the shootings and said it was ready to help the Danish government investigate, if asked. "We offer our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased victim, and our thoughts are with those wounded in this attack," U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said.


Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried the attack and said his government plans to encourage a "massive immigration" of Jews from Europe. "Again, Jews were murdered on European soil just because they were Jews," Netanyahu said at the start of his Cabinet meeting Sunday. "This wave of attacks is expected to continue, as well as murderous anti-Semitic attacks. Jews deserve security in every country, but we say to our Jewish brothers and sisters, Israel is your home."


And while this latest attack may have ended, the imminent threat of more deaths prompted authorities to cancel on short notice a carnival parade in the northern German town of Braunschweig planned for Sunday lunchtime, notice due to a concrete threat of an Islamist attack, police said.


"Reliable state security sources have made it known that a concrete threat of attack with an Islamist background exists," authorities in Braunschweig said in a statement. Police called on all visitors to refrain from visiting the planned route of the carnival parade and avoid travelling to Braunschweig.


If tragic history is any precedent, this will hardly be the end of the Europe's resurgent wave of hate crimes: hate, which the pseudo-federalization of Europe and its conversion to a political, customs and monetary union (which itself has been the cause of so much pain and suffering for millions of Europeans) was supposed to prevent.


Which, of course, is not to say that the US is any better. Presenting: Chicago.





Massive sinkhole widens even further in Solikamsk, Russia


© Getty

Solikamsk sinkhole



Flooding at a PAO Uralkali potash mine in Russia's Perm region has increased four-fold in the last two weeks, and a nearby sinkhole is almost 300 feet across.

The average brine inflow to the Solikamsk-2 mine increased from 200 cubic meters an hour to about 820 cubic meters an hour between Jan. 22 and Feb. 6, the world's largest potash miner said today in a statement. A sinkhole that opened up east of the mine, swallowing local summer homes, has widened to 87 meters (285 feet) by 58 meters and is about 75 meters deep, it said.


Uralkali is monitoring the mine about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) east of Moscow after salty water, which dissolves potash, began pouring into the site on Nov. 18. The company has said there's a high risk the mine will be completely flooded, forcing it to abandon a site that accounts for about 18 percent of its capacity.


"The announcement just confirms what was known anyway -- the mine is rather dead than alive and is likely to be fully flooded, with inflows seen intensifying in spring," said Raiffeisenbank analyst Konstantin Yuminov. Uralkali assumed the mine was lost when it forecast 2015 output of 10.5 million metric tons, announced in December, he said.


Uralkali is salvaging equipment from the mine shaft that isn't needed to deal with the flooding, it said. Three "Ural" continuous miners have already been dismantled and taken out.


Uralkali also said today that it is pumping brine from the inflow area in the eastern area of the mine field to the western part to prevent flooding in the area adjacent to the shaft. Construction of a brine diversion channel has been completed.


Uralkali is continuing work to strengthen barrier walls between the Solikamsk-1 and Solikamsk-2 mines and is backfilling the worked-out areas of the mine.


Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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Water running dry for Palestinians as Israel turns off the taps




Israeli forces destroyed a 1,000 metre pipeline built to provide water to Palestinian communities. Cutting off from a regular supply of running water for nearly a year.



In the northern Jordan Valley last week, Israeli forces destroyed a 1,000 metre pipeline built to provide water to Palestinian communities. In East Jerusalem, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been cut off from a regular supply of running water for nearly a year. In Gaza, the water infrastructure has been decimated and in the homes that do receive water it is still undrinkable. Water and who controls it has become a key part of Israel's occupation, with the Palestinian territories; West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, in a constant struggle for the vital resource.

Before the birth of Israel, Chaim Weizmann, who would become the country's first president,said in 1919:




"[It is] of vital importance not only to secure all water resources already feeding the country, but also to control them at their source."




Rafael Eitan, chief of staff and minister of agriculture and environment, said some years later:


"Israel must hold on to the West Bank to make sure that Tel Aviv's taps don't run dry."




Current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in 1998:

"And when I talk about the importance to Israel's security... It means that a housewife in Tel Aviv can open the tap and there's water running to it, and it's not been dried up because of a rash decision that handed over control of our aquifers to the wrong hands."



In 1967, the year the occupation began, Israel put the plan Weizmann had talked about as early as 1919 into action. All Palestinian water resources were declared Israeli State Property and Palestinians had to apply for permits to develop their water resources. After nearly 30 years, the Oslo Accords were signed, supposedly bringing an end to the situation. Another 20 years on, it is apparent that they instead formalised and legitimised an existing discriminatory arrangement - an arrangement still in place today.

In the West Bank, the Jordan River, one of the main water sources, has been diverted upstream into Lake Kinneret/Tiberias/Sea of Galilee - lakes inside Israel, while Palestinians are physically barred from accessing its river banks. Palestinians have access to one fifth of the mountain aquifer, the other main source, while Israel abstracts the balance, and in addition overdraws by more than 50 per cent, up to 1.8 times its share under Oslo.


The Separation Wall, roadblocks, checkpoints and other Israeli 'security measures' further restrict Palestinian communities' access to water resources and filling points. Meanwhile Israeli settlers living in the same territory are supplied with an abundance of water; the consumption of more than 500,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank is about six times higher than that of 2.6 million Palestinians in the West Bank.


To boost insufficient supplies, the Palestinians must buy water from Israel's national water company "Mekorot" - the same water that Israel extracts from the mountain aquifer and which the Palestinians should be able to extract for themselves.


Jamal Juma, coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign, an organisation which is part of a network of groups challenging Mekorot, said:



"The real water problem in Palestine is not about scarcity of water. There is more annual rainfall in Ramallah than in London and per capita consumption of water in Israel is higher than the average consumption in Europe. The water problem in Palestine is created by Israel, through systematic theft of water and denial of access to water. Mekorot is the core player in implementing what we call Israel's water apartheid."



For East Jerusalem residents the situation is slightly different. East Jerusalem fell under Israeli jurisdiction after Israel annexed the whole of the city. The Jerusalemite Palestinians pay taxes to Israel and also technically qualify for Israeli healthcare, social benefits and services - including running water. However, the neighbourhoods of Ras Shehada, Ras Khamis, Dahyat A'salam and the Shuafat refugee camp have been suffering from a severe water crisis since last March when residents went three weeks without any water supply. They have been forced to buy water bottles at a high cost, and must limit their consumption by using electric pumps and industrial containers.

In Gaza, the water infrastructure is in pieces as a result of repeated wars and a blockade which has prevented repairs and maintenance. By the end of the latest bombardment over the summer, around 26 water wells had been completely or partially destroyed, while 46 kilometres of the water supply networks had been damaged, according to a statement by the Palestinian Water Authority. The water distribution network suffered an estimated $34.4 million worth of damage.


Waste water treatment is another longstanding problem in Gaza. Many residents are not connected to a sewage system and domestic waste flows into cesspits, contaminating groundwater. Electricity shortages and damages to waste water treatment facilities during "Operation Cast Lead", Israel's 2008-2009 military offensive, made the situation worse - some 90 million litres of untreated sewage flows into the Mediterranean daily.


Prior to the recent attack, 97 per cent of residents in Gaza were connected to a public water system. However, 90 per cent of this was undrinkable and so residents were forced to buy water treated in governmental or private factories, or factories run by charities. The public water system means households can have running water; however electricity and fuel shortages prevent the water from being pumped through the system.


Access to water is a highly politicised and manipulated resource in Palestine. As Palestinian communities suffer - albeit through the destruction of their wells, through water that doesn't come through the taps, or sewage that flows into the street - it is clear that, in Palestine, water is not a right.


Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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Develop your thinking skills through writing

writing

Better thinking come from practice. What are some good ways to practice? You can sit and think, for starters, you can work on specific puzzles and problems. You can have interesting discussions with others. There may not be a "best" way to practice your thinking skills and boost your brainpower, but one of the most powerful is to write.

Why writing? Because unless you are just copying words, to write is to think. There are three basic ways in which writing helps your thinking skills.


1. Writing clarifies your thoughts


You may have noticed how much clearer an argument or opinion becomes to you once you express it. Talking forces you to clarify your thoughts, but not just to the other person. Putting thoughts into words is also a process of telling yourself the logic behind what you "felt" or what you only partly understood. You try to make the other person understand, but you are often also bringing yourself to that understanding, or at least a better one. You are thinking aloud.


Writing accomplishes the same thing. It is essentially like talking to the paper or computer screen. Compared to talking, it has the disadvantage of not giving you outside feedback. On the other hand, you get to express and develop your thoughts without interruption. This is a great way to work on your thinking skills. Boost your brainpower by exercising your "explain power."


2. Writing establishes firmer memories


We cannot use what we cannot remember. This isn't entirely true, because we are often using a lot of information from our unconscious minds in decision making and everyday life. However, to consciously think about a topic effectively, we need to have the knowledge and ideas we have gained available. This means we need to remember things. Better memory equals better thinking skills.


Writing helps with this. This is why we were all advised in school to take notes. It wasn't just to have the notes for later, but also because the process of writing things down helps us remember them. By the way, a piece of paper and a pen in your pocket is a good idea if you want to remember new people's names. Just write them down as soon as you learn them.


3. Writing gives you new insight


Do you want to understand a topic? Write a book or ten articles about it. Okay, you may not have the time, but if you are learning about behavioral economics, for example, you can write a letter to a friend about it, and you will understand it better.


Do you want to invent a new product? Write down an explanation of the problem you are trying to solve (ex: create a better chair). Include an explanation of the good and bad points of the current solutions. Write about some possible approaches, and write about anything else you can think of. Do this exercise, and you're half-way to your new invention.


People don't necessarily write about something because they understand it already. They often start writing about something because they want to understand it, and the process of writing is what brings about their understanding. Why not start a journal today and improve your thinking by writing?


Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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Israeli air force pilot turned activist: I was "part of a terror organization"


© Ryan Rodrick Beiler

Yonatan Shapira: defines conscience and bravery in speaking out against Israeli terror.



Yonatan Shapira was born on an Israeli military base the year before his father flew fighter jets in the October War of 1973. Thirty years later, twelve of them spent as an air force pilot himself, Shapira rejected the military. In 2003, he wrote a letter, pledging not to fly over the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Shapira is among the few Israelis to have declared support for the Palestinian-led call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. He has also been attacked by the Israeli military for attempting to sail towards and break the siege of Gaza.


He recently spoke to The Electronic Intifada contributor Ryan Rodrick Beiler.


Ryan Rodrick Beiler: What was it like growing up in a military family?


Yonatan Shapira: The education I got was very much about peace, equality, freedom and a lot of socialist values — caring about the other, caring about the poor — but at the same time with a big wall of negligence of Palestine. The same time I was in class learning these beautiful values, the Israeli army was engaged in occupation, land grabs, settlements , massacres, deportation of Palestinian activists.


But I didn't know these things. I truly believed that I should defend my country. I wanted to be like my father. I wanted to be a pilot in the air force and it was my dream come true when I was accepted. I became a helicopter pilot and flew rescue missions and commando transport.


RRB: When did you begin to question the military's actions?


YS: I realized something was rotten when the Israeli government started what was called the "assassination policy" in 2001-2003. Palestinian resistance failed to bring liberation and more extreme attitudes took place, such as suicide bombings and other [forms of] armed struggle. The government thought to assassinate everyone that has to do with armed resistance.


Pilots would be sent with missiles to shoot the car of this person. In the beginning, this car could be driving outside of town where just the car was hit. Later they would allow shooting suspects when they are closer to the city. Eventually the assassination would be even if he's in the middle of the market, or in his house at night with all of the family around.


In July 2002, Salah Shehadeh, head of the armed branch of Hamas in Gaza, was bombed in the middle of the night with an F-16 dropping a one-ton bomb on his house where he was sleeping with his children and his wife. The bomb killed fifteen people, most of them children, and about 150 were injured. If I needed some answer for my questions and doubts, that was clear: this is a terror attack. And I'm part of a terror organization.


The commander of the air force said that everything was done perfectly, and the pilots should sleep well at night. That was an additional thing that helped us: when someone says you can sleep well at night, maybe it's time to wake up and start to think. For me and several friends, that was the moment we decided to do something.


RRB: When you and 26 others published "The Pilots' Letter" condemning Israel's attacks on civilians, how did going public change you?


YS: It was like a birth for us. We ended one chapter in our lives and became, in our view, peace activists, human rights activists, freedom activists. In the eyes of many in our society we became traitors.


We were not the first Israeli soldiers to act upon their belief. In 1982 there were many who refused to participate in the war in Lebanon and were sent to jail. Another group in 2002 were willing to go to jail instead of doing reserve duty in the West Bank and Gaza.


More recently, 43 soldiers from the elite intelligence unit called 8200 declared they are not willing to participate in these criminal actions. We have high school seniors who decide they cannot join the Israeli army because it's engaged in terrorism against civilians. We now have some people in jail, spending usually between half a year and a year.


It takes a lot of courage to do something like that when you're eighteen years old. I didn't have this courage. I didn't have this information. I didn't have this realization. It took me twelve years in the air force to realize I'm not fighting for the right side.


RRB: If you were not fighting for the right side, as you say, how did you change that?


YS: It's not enough just to not be part of something you believe is wrong. Now you have to make another step and become part of the solution.


We thought the next step would be to meet with Palestinian ex-fighters and to find common ground. In 2005-2006 we started an organization called Combatants for Peace. It was one of the most significant experiments I ever had in my life. To step into a room with people who before you were fearing to death — they were supposed to kill you and you were supposed to kill them. Suddenly you sit in a room and you talk about your story and about your family and friends. When you leave this room you are a different person. The "we" and "them" that you had before cannot exist anymore. We realized that we are actually much more similar than different.


It was a very important thing for us, for the Palestinians and for the Israelis. But later, nevertheless, I realized that the framework was problematic because it's not a conflict of equal parties. It's not that you have two countries fighting each other. It's a colonial struggle — colonizer and colonized. So there is a conceptual problem when you come to create something that is based on equal power balance, which it's totally not.


RRB: What is your role as an Israeli activist when the two sides aren't equal?


YS: To become a refuser, a conscientious objector, is a big step. This one now is to realize that it's not about you. It's not about me. My life, with all respect, with little problems here and there is beautiful compared to the people who are massacred in Gaza. The next step for me — not for all the people in these organizations, many of them didn't want to make this step — is to realize that we need to actually join the struggle for liberation.


RRB: With the problems you mention, can dialogue still be a force for liberation?


YS: I am trying to not let go of this tool because I feel that it's a production mechanism to create more and more activists. And we need more activists. So even within the problematic framework, I'm trying to continue to do dialogue, but — it's a very big but — we have to make sure that the context will bring to the room the power imbalance and the reality on the ground. I truly think that at this point dialogue could be a legitimate tool in the Israeli-Palestinian context only if there is a subversive radical agenda that is agreed upon by all the facilitators.


If the kids come and play and sing and talk with each other and then the Israeli kids go and join the military and the Palestinian kids go and sit in jail for participating in a demonstration or something, you didn't do anything. You just helped, especially the Israelis, to feel a little bit better, as well as the European or American donors.


Now we're touching on issues of normalization. We are trying to navigate with our Palestinian partners (from within the 1948 borders) how not to become tools for the Israeli mainstream to feel good about the occupation. It's a delicate process, but we have a clear agenda. We don't have to say what we think — it's happening in the room because we try to raise voices to make sure that the hardcore issues of injustice, like the ongoing Nakba , are present, and it has an amazing effect.


RRB: You mention normalization, but some say that any cooperation with Israelis — even activists — is a form of normalization.


YS: Some Palestinians don't want to have any contact with Israelis because everything is normalization, so you cannot struggle together. Okay, I can live with that. And I can see where it comes from. I can see the pain. I can see the anger.


There is also a philosophical basis that I respect. You can read Steve Biko and Frantz Fanon: whites will never understand what blacks are going through and any participation by them in the struggle will be partly to relieve their guilt feelings and will harm more than what it supports.


These are valid concerns. Everything has pros and cons, and I see the pros of joint struggle. I believe it's about injustice and that we have to correct it for all the people involved.


RRB: What's your relationship with the BDS movement?


YS: I'm a member of Boycott from Within — people from Israeli society who support the boycott just like white activists in South Africa supported the boycott againstapartheid. It's not a big group but this is the seed of future coexistence. Now the word coexistence makes you feel ... not so comfortable. Let's talk about co-resistance. Let's struggle together. Let's resist the policies of apartheid. Let's resist the policy of racism together — and we can coexist.


I look at the guidelines of the BDS movement , and I feel totally comfortable. They have three major goals: to end apartheid for Palestinians within the 1948 borders; to end the control over Gaza and the West Bank; and to promote the right of return of the millions of Palestinian refugees around the world.


It's a common agreement with all lefties that the occupation is bad, it should end. You don't have to be a very radical Israeli to support that. It's also common to believe there is no real equality for Palestinians citizens of Israel. But to promote the right of return touches the very notion of a Jewish state. Even to the very progressive lefty Israeli, it's something hard. It's almost like you have to go through an emotional endeavor to battle with some Zionist remains inside you to realize that you can't have peace and freedom with someone worth more than someone else. That's why we're not waiting anymore for people inside Israel.


RRB: You've now spent almost as many years as an activist as you did in the military. What sustains you? Are there any hopeful signs?


YS: Even though I do things like for example, participate in the flotilla to Gaza and pay a little bit by being a few days in jail, it's surprising how many times walking in the street I meet someone I didn't see for years and they come and hug you and say thank you. We represent things that people think even though they are not radicalized to the full extent. So it's not just a little group of lunatic people.


And if you go to campuses today in the US the atmosphere is totally different than it was ten years ago. I toured different times in the States from 2004 on, and every time I see a different attitude and it changed for the good. Many of the activists in the Palestine committees are Jewish students. Their parents were supporting AIPAC and the right-wing Jewish lobbies, but the second generation is with the Palestinians, working together side by side.


In 2005 when I did a lecture tour, Jewish Voice for Peace had seven chapters, Today they have more than forty chapters. They represent the future and the new generation of Jews in the US.


The BDS movement is not waiting for the politicians. Millions of people in Europe, in the US, in the rest of the world support us. Maybe compared to Israeli Jews, I'm still a minority, but overall, in the world, there is growing support. And it's not against Jews and it's not against Israelis. It's for future mutual existence in this piece of land. And for the question of one state or two states — there is already one state. The only question is whether it will remain an apartheid state or if it will to be an equal place for everyone.


Ryan Rodrick Beiler is a freelance photojournalist and member of the ActiveStills collective. He lived in Palestine from 2010-2014. He now lives in Oslo, Norway.


Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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Bobcat kills 3 pets before capture in El Dorado Hills, California




Captured bobcat.



It was stalking around town, on the hunt for prey in a secluded El Dorado Hills neighborhood overrun with trees and brush. It's the kind of environment that makes it easy for a predator on the top of the food chain to hide out.

A 50-pound bobcat did some serious damage to the community, killing 3 pets in 2 days.


"Killed one of their cats, attacked another one of their cats and tried to eat it but the cat got away. Killed another neighbor's cat, then he called us," Jeffery Duke of Duke's Wildlife Control & Removal told FOX40.


That victim took to a community watch group, warning others after his pet was killed in his own yard. He also witnessed the same animal eating someone else's cat. It had no fear of humans and was capable of hopping fences. It took expertise to nab the wildcat.


"They are so hard to catch and so aware that the grass he is walking on has to be the same," Duke said.


It's the first time Duke's Wildlife Control has ever captured one.


"In this area where he was tracked down, there's plenty of food sources: deer, wild turkey, rodents, and pets that venture outdoors," Duke said. "Nothing you can do but keep your pets inside. They aren't coming in your house after you."


We've seen it time and time again as the drought worsens; wild animals venture closer to humans on the prowl for food.


Duke caught the bobcat, and by law, the animal had to be euthanized.


Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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400 people killed in man-animal conflict in last 15 years in Uttarakhand, India




Leopard



Man-animal conflict has played havoc with the lives of people in almost 14,000 villages which are located near forest areas. Figures point to the massive extent of damage, and the many lives lost. Since 2000, when the state was formed, around 400 people have died in attacks by animals. Of these, 241 were believed to have been killed by leopards alone. As for animal casualties, around 800 leopards, 90 tigers and 280 elephants have reportedly died in these encounters. However, the state forest department is yet to get its act in place. It cites shortage of staff and limited weaponry as the biggest stumbling blocks in ensuring proper patrolling of the forests.

Meanwhile, people living near the jungles are losing patience. Forest guards have been held captive, and leopards trapped in cages have been set afire. In fact, such is the state of panic that villagers live in constant fear that wild animals may attack them, or their cattle anytime. The forest department, in order to pacify the infuriated villagers, has been enlisting professional hunters. But this has hardly helped calm down tempers. In fact, last year itself, around 25 people were killed by leopards. Acknowledging the gravity of the problem, Dinesh Aggarwal, state forest minister said, "The increasing incidents of leopard attacks on humans in the state is a matter of serious concern. This is happening because both the prey base and the forest areas have shrunk to a great deal and the leopards have begun straying into human habitat for easy food."


In order to do some damage control, the forest department recently trained some of its staff in tranquilising and safely releasing the leopards responsible for human attacks into the forest. Other projects, officials, said, are also in the pipeline. DVS Khati, chief wildlife warden said, "Some basic but essential steps have to be taken to mitigate human-animal conflicts which include creating arrangement of sufficient street lights in the villages. The bushes, too, have to be cleared so that the leopards do not get cover to hide. People must not venture out in dark and be alone near the forest area. Even during day time, they should not go deep into the forest infested with leopards."


To resolve the problem of shortage of prey in the forests, he added, "The wildlife department will create enclosures in the hill areas where prey species such as cheetal, sambar, boar etc will be bred and then left into the forest area so that the leopards get sufficient food in the forest only and do not attack humans. However, it is a long term project which will take a few years to yield results."


Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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