How would it feel if a big cat was spotted in the vicinity of your home? Wouldn’t you be too terrified to move? Or, would you greet it and invite it for tea? Video footage of leopards jumping over compound walls in and around Mumbai’s Goregaon make this writer ponder man-animal conflicts. There’s a Leopard in my House (Daffodil Lane Books) by Vaishali Shroff introduces a child to the question of when or why an animal forages out of its natural habitat. Shroff’s previous titles including Sita’s Chitwan: Not Just a Walk in Nepal’s First National Park, have focused on engaging young minds about wildlife. Her latest title is centred on the sensibilities spurred by community protests against the indiscriminate felling of trees at Aarey forest. The protests were aimed at having a Metro car shed built anywhere else without damaging the lungs of Mumbai.

Artworks by Urvashi Dubey from the book, There’s a Leopard in my House