In Gujarat’s Amreli, a bedroom behind bars 

Every night, as darkness falls over Japodar village in Gujarat’s Amreli district, Bharatbhai Baraiya (30) ushers five of his six children into an 8×6-foot iron cage— their small bedroom, flanked by tarpaulin sheets on one side and cement blocks on two others. 

For the widowed farmer, this “human cage” is the only defence against the prowling leopards that stalk his rented farm, turning their lives into a nightly battle for survival. “This cage is our shield,” says Mr. Baraiya. “I lost my wife to illness; I can’t lose my children to wild animals.” 

For months now, the family has slept behind metal bars, their bodies huddled together on a thin mattress, ears straining for the telltale growls of big cats lurking. 

“This area is close to Gir National Park and we often see lions, they are not a threat. When a lion approaches, we can sense its presence—it roars, its movements are noticeable, and most of them don’t attack humans. But leopards are different… They attack silently and prefer small or young living beings like children and puppies,” he said, glancing at his five daughters.

In November last year, Mr. Baraiya’s wife, Bhavani, died while giving birth to their sixth child—a son—at a hospital in Rajula, a nearby town. Now, Bhavani’s parents are taking care of the infant.

A month later, as he struggled to balance farm work with raising his daughters—especially at night, when he also had to water the crops and protect them from nilgais and wild boars, while ensuring his children were safe from leopards—he came up with the idea of building a cage to keep his children safe at night when he couldn’t be with them.

“This house is almost like a cattle shed. It’s not made with proper construction blocks; the cement blocks are simply stacked, and there’s no door. So the leopard sneaks in… I bought iron rods and grills from Rajula and hired a local craftsman to assemble them. It cost me ₹9,000,” said Mr. Baraiya, who originally hails from Bokodar village.

He added that his house lies along a regular leopard trail, and nearly every day, one or two leopards climb and sit on the banyan tree just outside their home.

The 2023 wildlife census recorded 2,274 leopards across the region, marking a notable rise in their population. In Amreli district alone, the number has grown significantly from the previous count of 105 in 2016 to 126 in 2023. The number must have increased significantly after the last census. 

The tenant farmer recalled that they initially had three puppies on the farm, but all of them vanished within a few weeks. “That’s when I began noticing signs of leopard activity and became alert,” he said. “After my wife passed away, there was a night when my eldest daughter, Sobhana, who is 10, spotted a leopard. She was so terrified that she refused to even step outside during the day. That was the moment I realised I had no choice but to come up with this idea.”

At night, when the children occasionally need to step out, they are always accompanied either by Mr. Baraiya or his sister-in-law.