AHMEDABAD: In a desperate bid to protect his children from prowling leopards, a farmer chose a unique solution — not to cage the predator, but to cage his own family. Every night in Japodar village of Amreli, an eight-by-six-foot iron cage becomes an unlikely bedroom for Bharat Bariya and his six children, where they huddle together behind metal bars under the night sky. Living behind bars was the only solution Bariya, a widower, was left with to safeguard his five daughters and three-month-old son. The ‘human cage’, made larger than the cages used by forest officials to capture leopards, stands as a stark symbol of the human-wildlife conflict in rural Amreli.
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“When we arrived here, we had three puppies in the field. That is when I noticed the leopard’s constant movement in the area,” said Bariya. “One day, my daughters asked me what would happen if a leopard attacked them. That question shook me to my core. And I decided to build this cage where we now sleep together.”
This farmer, who is a native of Bakodar village, also in Amreli, has been taking a field on rent in Japodar village. The area has a large population of lions and leopards. The 2023 census recorded 2,274 leopards, the highest numbers being in Saurashtra. In Amreli, the count was 105 in 2016, which increased to 126 in 2023.
Farm labourers living with their families in rural areas are being increasingly targeted by the leopards. “Lions are different. You can hear their roar once a day, you can sense their movement,” Bariya explained. “But leopards? They strike silently from behind, and they prefer targeting young ones.”
“The safety of my children haunts me constantly,” Bariya said. “The house in our field is not strong enough to protect them. After losing their mother, I am all they have. My elderly parents can barely hear anymore and though my sister-in-law helps care for the children, the threat remains.”
The farmer said, “The idea of constructing a cage struck me when I was watering the field one night. I bought iron grills and rods from Rajula and hired a craftsman to build a large, secure iron cage, which is even larger than the forest department to trap leopards.”
The farmer and his six children sleep in the cage, and if he goes out to water the field, he ensures that his sister-in-law stays with them. The children, on many occasions, have to get out to attend to nature’s call, and hence they ensure that one adult always accompanies them. On a couple of occasions, leopards have come very close to their cage, he says.
Earlier in 2023, a farmer, Bharat Barod, a resident of Bhatkota village of Aravalli, constructed a cage and locked himself in it from dusk to dawn to protect himself from a leopard attack. He always carried with him a lathi attached with a machete to guard his wheat and groundnut crops.
