Maharashtra: 10 leopards moved from state to Gujarat

Representation Pic

Ten leopards captured over man-animal conflicts in the Junnar forest division of Pune district have been relocated to a shelter in Gujarat, officials said on Thursday.

Amol Satpute, Deputy Conservator of Forests (Junnar), said the Central Zoo Authority in New Delhi has approved the relocation of four female and six male leopards from Manikdoh shelter home in Junnar taluka to ‘Vantara', an animal shelter and rehabilitation centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat.

The Vantara facility, spread over 3,000 acres, was founded by Anant Ambani and has more than 2,000 rescued animals, brought from different parts of the country.

"Some leopards were captured between March and May from human-leopard conflict areas in Junnar taluka, including Pimpri Pendhar, Kalwadi, and Pimpalwandi. These areas experienced three human deaths and two serious injuries due to leopard attacks during this period," said Satpute.

Captured felines are usually kept at the Manikdoh facility, he said. Due to a space crunch there, the forest department was trying to relocate the big cats to other such centres in the state but it could not materialise, Satpute said.

"We had written to Vantara, the Jamnagar-located animal rehabilitation centre, and they agreed to the transfer," he said.

The felines were transported in three air-conditioned ambulances, each capable of carrying five leopards and reached the facility on July 31. The transfer operation included two ambulances for the leopards and a third on standby for emergencies, he said.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever