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Sanjay Gandhi National Park
I’ve always loved Indian English and the
way it clings to archaic verbs and half-
forgotten idioms. Indians don’t argue,
they quarrel; they don’t think someone is
nuts, but that they ‘have bats in their belfry’.
It’s a variant of the language that bathes in
hyperbole and quirky idioms, whether that’s
a ‘best exotic hotel’ or a ‘cryptic and elusive
predator’ — the latter is a phrase naturalist
Sagar Mahajan uses to describe leopards.
We’re in the north of Mumbai, on the edge
of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, just
20 minutes from the international airport.
This is one of the very few national parks
in the world that falls within a city’s
boundary, and it makes up the majority
of Mumbai’s green space. Amazingly, it’s
also home to an estimated 50 leopards
— it’s difficult to believe that they have 20
million people for neighbours.
“We’ve 46sq miles of wooded areas
and so this is the densest population of
leopards in India — normally they’d
require a lot more space,” explains the
guide from the Bombay Natural History
Society as we follow a two-hour nature
trail from the Society’s Conservation
Education Centre.As well as the big cats, the park is home
to four types of deer and over 170 butterfly
species. Around 250 species of bird have
been spotted here too. Unfortunately, this
includes the crow, the ugly call of which
seems to drown out other more melodious
songs. Elsewhere in Mumbai — as is the case
in all of India’s megacities — these scavengers
are usually accompanied by stray dogs, but
they’re not in evidence here. There’s a good
reason for this: “When we study leopards, we
have to look at their diet. Around 60% of what
they eat is dogs, mostly strays,” Sagar tells me.
The leopards have been observed hunting
rats. “What I like about the leopards is how
adaptable they are,” says Sagar, when I ask
him about this. Were it not for the danger
they also pose to humans, leopards would
surely be a very welcome form of pest control
in other parts of the country.
But on our trek, we don’t meet any. This is
partly because it’s daytime and leopards are
mainly nocturnal, but also because only 25%
of the park has been made accessible to the
public. The rest remains wild and, although
we might be on the fringes of India’s most
populous city — and an abundant supply of
canines — the felines, when given a choice,
will always prefer to go unseen.MORE INFO
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sgnp.maharashtra.gov.inG ADVENTURES offers a four-day
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TailorMade tour offering. From £999
per person, B&B, flights and other
meals not included. gadventures.comFROM LEFT: the ubiquitous Mumbai
sandwich; the Gateway of India;
Kanheri Caves, a popular attraction in
Sanjay Gandhi National Park; spotted
deer, one of four deer species found in
the parkNEIGHBOURHOODJul/Aug 2020 53