Leopard stirs panic in Mah village, rescued after 10-hr-long operation

Nagpur: Jaulake Khurd village in the Khed range of Pune district, Maharashtra, experienced a spike in human-leopard conflict after an adult leopard was found wandering in the area.
On Friday night, the leopard was rescued in a 10-hour long operation by the Maharashtra forest department and Wildlife SOS.
The forest department was first alerted of the leopard sighting as it repeatedly came into conflict with residents of Jaulake Khurd in the Khed range. On Friday, the Wildlife SOS team operating out of the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre in Junnar assisted the forest department in conducting a 10-hour-long rescue operation to safely remove the leopard from the conflict zone.
The first step was tracking the leopard. Using evidence from camera traps and pugmarks, the forest department and Wildlife SOS were able to confirm the location of the leopard swiftly. Yet, the initial attempt to rescue the leopard was disrupted as the frightened feline fled, forcing the authorities to take a different approach.
Eventually, the leopard was spotted sitting in tall grasslands. The forest department acted promptly and secured the area around the leopard using safety nets. Numerous precautionary measures were used such as wearing protective gear and blocking every exit point. A trap cage with food bait was then placed nearby to lure the leopard in.
After several hours of waiting, the leopard successfully entered the trap cage and was transferred to the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre for medical observation.
RFO Pradip Raundal, Khed, said, “The Jaulake Khurd village has previously not experienced as much human-leopard conflict. However, leopards are slowly shifting into this area. The biggest challenge we faced in rescuing this leopard was that it was camouflaged during the day and extremely active at night. ”
Dr Nikhil Bangar, wildlife veterinary officer, Wildlife SOS, said, “Tracking wide-ranging leopards is an extremely formidable task and can even take months. The forest department and Wildlife SOS team were able to track the leopard in a record-breaking time of about a day.”
Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, said, “We were glad to have been of assistance to the forest department in conducting the safe rescue of this leopard. Depletion of the natural prey base and habitat due to encroachment and deforestation forces them to seek out easily available prey such as poultry and livestock in human settlements. This often leads to human-leopard conflicts which have violent and brutal consequences for both humans and wildlife.”