THANE: A teenage daughter of a senior bureaucrat has set an example by adopting a 9-year-old visually challenged female leopard on her birthday. The wild cat had been found injured and deserted in the Western ghats and later rehabilitated at Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
According to forest officials, Vedangi (17), daughter of Milind Borikar, Mumbai suburban collector, had shown interest in adopting a wild animal last year. A government facility allows individuals, private parties and even corporates to sponsor a captive wild animal for a year.
Borikar said that they found an instant connect with the female leopard named Koyna who had been found badly injured with both eyes severely damaged in a sugarcane field that had been set ablaze in Western Maharashtra in 2012.
“We were searching for an animal to adopt when SGNP officials told us about Koyna and we decided to make her part of our family. We are now happy to see her growing healthy as the staff take good care of her,” Borikar told TOI.
“Koyna was brought here as she couldn’t have survived in the jungle due to her handicap. We reared her and were trying to find a patron for her till now. Many preferred healthy animals; there was no one to adopt Koyna and we were surprised and, at the same time, happy when the Borikars showed interest in her,” said an official from SGNP.
Vedangi, who is pursuing Arts at St Xavier's College, is said to be so smitten by the leopard since last year that this time around, ahead of her birthday on December 1, she reminded her father to ensure all formalities were completed in time and Koyana was part of their family.