Ekla cholo re

Leopards walk long distances. If there was ever a doubt, last week's mid-day report on a leopard having traversed 25 km from Goregaon's Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SNGP) to the Gorai-Manori belt via a green patch in Mira Bhayendar, where locals have spotted large pug marks, only confirms this.

Here, they collect the swab samples of C33

A radio collaring project carried out late last year on leopards in SNGP, is throwing up similar data. A total of six leopards had been radio collared. The collar fitted on a female leopard named C33 (Delta), reveals that between November 2021 and February this year, she has traversed 295 km, most of this being between the park and Aarey Milk Colony. To the amazement of the team monitoring the project, C33 has crossed the main Aarey Road, and on one instance during daylight, too. C33 was radio-collared by biologist Dr Bilal Habib's team from the Wildlife Institute of India along with the support of SGNP administration on November 12, 2021, and released into the Tulsi Range area of SGNP. The researchers from Wildlife Conservation Society-India including biologist Nikit Surve and Thane Forest Department (Territorial) and SGNP teams have been monitoring its activity.

A microchip scanner is used to scan the leopard's body

Sunil Limaye, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) -Wildlife, said, "The team of researchers tracking her has found that on a few occasions, C33 has crossed Aarey Milk Colony's main road during peak traffic hours."

The Thane and SGNP Leopard Rescue Team and forest department staff members seen after the collaring of C33

The collaring is also helping the Forest Department and researchers understand the animal's food habits, and how it is negotiating a landscape dominated by humans. SGNP Director and Conservator of Forest (CF) G Mallikarjuna, told mid-day, "We have discovered that C33 has killed a variety of prey ranging from poultry to spotted deer, but most of it is domestic prey. She visits the carcass for one or two days if the prey is large, like an adult deer or domestic dog. She rests for 24 to 40 hours after feeding."

Biologist Nikit Surve from Wildlife Conservation Society-India, along with other forest department staff, tracking the leopard using antenna. Pics Courtesy/Nayan Khanolkar, All Rights Reserved

In addition to travelling long distances, C33 has come excitingly close to busy human habitation, including a patch on the Western Express Highway near Goregaon as well as Mohan Gokhale Road. The researchers have recorded her resting atop abandoned human settlements even while people have been present nearby, which proves its ability to peacefully coexist without disturbing the human population. "C33 once made a dog kill at the side of WEH close to Aarey and she stayed around that area for a few days. On one occasion, she was recorded on multiple CCTV cameras in and around Gokuldham society, in Goregaon. An image of her resting on the boundary wall of Vanrai police station had earlier gone viral," added Limaye.

Recordings show that C33 began moving towards the north-western boundary of SNGP, stayed there for a few days and returned to Bhoot Bangla. She crossed over to Mulund and then travelled towards IIT Powai via the Pipeline Road. After exactly a month, she returned to Aarey. After returning to her original territory, her movement began to throw up a pattern. She spends a majority of the time using the north-western areas of Aarey. Usually after feeding on prey, she moves into the forest patch in Gundgaon Round and spends a few days there."

The animal is most active
Between 6 pm and 7 am

Least active
When resting between 8 am to 5 pm

She had crossed roads
On two occasions, and witnessed once by the Forest Department officials and once by Bombay Natural History Society volunteers near BNHS-CEC campus.

Domestic dogs could be reason for high leopard density in SGNP: Study

A recent study to better understand the coexistence of leopards and humans, conducted in 104 km of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and the adjoining protected area of Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary (TWLS), revealed that despite extremely high human density around SGNP (20,000 people/km2), the leopard population was much higher than at adjoining TWLS, which has a comparatively lower surrounding density of humans. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers, and led by Nikit Sanjay Surve, Sambandam Sathyakumar, Kalyanasundaram Sankar, Devcharan Jathanna, Vikas Gupta and Vidya Athreya. It is often thought that wild carnivores do not occur at high densities near dense human habitations. "[But], the high density of leopards in SGNP... can be attributed to lack of larger predators, threats, intensive management and, most importantly, high food availability consisting both of wild and domestic prey," the authors shared. Domestic dogs formed a major proportion of the leopard diet and were the single highest species contributors. The other eight potential leopard prey species include chital, sambar, barking deer, wild pig, common langur, bonnet macaque, gray jungle fowl, and red spur fowl.