06 March,2019 04:30 PM IST | Pune | Ranjeet Jadhav
In a yet another successful reunion done by the team of NGO Wildlife SOS along with Maharashtra Forest Department, an approximately 9-week-old male leopard cub that got separated from its mother was safely reunited near Nagapur village located in Pune district.
The leopards wander stealthily through talk stalks of sugarcane which also has easy access to water and shelter provided by the field. The cases are more during the harvest season which ramges from December to March. It's cub season for the wild cats, and the tall, dense vegetation, lulls mother leopards into a sense of security which is often misplaced.
The cub was found by local farmers in Nagapur village who stumbled upon a tiny leopard cub just as they were heading back home from the sugarcane fields, after a day of hard labour. The farmers hurriedly contacted the Range Forest Officer, Prayjot Palve. The Wildlife SOS team operating out of the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Center was also alerted about this incident and a four-member team led by Wildlife SOS senior veterinarian, Dr. Ajay Deshmukh accompanied by a team of forest officers rushed to aid the helpless cub. Watch the video below.
Prayjot Palve, Range Forest Officer(Junnar), said, "The Forest Department is aware of the past successful leopard cub reunions conducted by Wildlife SOS. On learning about the leopard cub, we instantly reached out to the NGO for assistance. We are extremely grateful for their support in our efforts to mitigate man-leopard conflict situations in the state and spreading awareness on such issues."
After a thorough medical examination by Dr. Ajay Deshmukh, the cub was found to be healthy and fit for release. The team arranged for the cub to be reunited with his mother but initially received opposition from the scared villagers who insisted that the cub be taken away from the area for their own safety. On realising that the enraged and stressed mother would pose a bigger threat to them, the villagers agreed to set the cub free. The team carefully placed him in a safe box and installed a remote-controlled camera trap to document the reunion process, while monitoring the area from a distance.
Dr. Ajay Deshmukh, Senior Veterinarian at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre said, "At around 9:30 pm, a leopardess finally came from the neighbouring forest and found her young one safe and sound. This marks our 52nd successful rescue and reunion operation. Rescues like this hold a very special place in our hearts as it is immensely rewarding for us to know that this cub will now continue being raised in the wild by his mother and thereby have a good chance at a free life in the wild."
Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder & CEO of Wildlife SOS said that the number of leopard sightings and conflicts increase during the pre-harvest and harvest season because the dense and tall vegetation makes for a convenient shelter for the leopards to breed in and nurture their cubs.
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