Conflict on the Rise – India’s ‘leopard problem’ is a chronicle of a crisis foretold. Kailash Sankhala, the first Director of Project Tiger had warned the Indian Board for Wildlife that the spotted cat was being forced into unwelcome proximity with humans thanks to our mindless destruction of forests. Ironically, the leopard’s prime survival assets – adaptability and stealth – are precisely what now places it and hundreds of its innocent human victims, in harm’s way.