Caught in the wild: Students& teachers here live a hard life

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s lunch break at Ponmudi Government UP School. The children take turns to play on the new rides installed on the school premises. A gentle breeze rustles the thick bushes surrounding the school. The tranquillity belies the worrisome life the teachers and the children here lead after a leopard was spotted ominously close to the school kitchen the previous week.
Startled by the leopard sighting they keep a watchful eye on each and every child and try not to leave them alone. Instead of confining themselves to staff rooms during recess they remain with them whenever they are outside. The smaller kids at the anganwadi remain inside their classroom with their teacher.
It was Shalini who came as a temporary replacement for her sister as the school cook who spotted the animal. She had come earlier than usual last week. The kitchen is just a few yards away from the forest.
“I reached here around 6.30am and I felt something was moving below the building. I went ahead and saw the leopard standing right in front of the trees. I ran and shut myself up inside the kitchen. After a few minutes I again went out and saw that it hadn’t moved. Then it leapt off and disappeared into the forest,” says Shalini.
She has been a resident at Ponmudi for a long time and she swears it’s the first time she has experienced something like this.
“It was very scary. I still don’t know what I would have done, if the leopard had jumped onto the higher ground where the kitchen is situated,” she says.
“We are keeping the kids at anganwadi inside. As for other children, we remain with them always when they are outside. Even when they go to the washroom, female or male teachers accompany them. The children are really scared,” says Aneesh P, one of the teachers at the school.
A series of unfinished skeletal concrete structures lead along a worn-out path to the school building. Mist rolls over the school and clouds it completely at the slightest onset of a shower. When the jackfruits ripe in the three trees close to the school, bears arrive. Wild boars come in packs and lurk behind the bushes close to the school and dig up turmeric.
The demand for a protective compound wall is long pending. Forest authorities maintain that permission was given for building one. However, the teachers said that the work has not begun yet and that there is confusion regarding the site to be covered by the compound wall.
“When my parents heard about leopard, they were really worried. They asked me not to go to school anymore. But we have to study anyway,” says Anamika, a student.