Rescue team members take them to SGNP to see if they have attacked humans
SGNP and Thane rescue team members and volunteers at Aarey Milk Colony on Tuesday morning
In the wake of an attack on a woman at Aarey Milk Colony on November 11, two leopardesses were trapped in the area in the wee hours of Tuesday.
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A forest department official told mid-day, “The leopardesses entered separate cages set up at Unit 15. They have been taken to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and the process of identification is in progress, based on which a decision will be taken.” The authorities will check if the rosette patterns of the trapped leopardesses match with those of the big cat responsible for the attacks.
Also read: Mumbai: 27 odonate species recorded in Aarey forest for first time
Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF) Girija Desai, Range Forest Officer (RFO) Rakesh Bhoir, RFO Vijay Barabde and the leopard rescue team from Thane and SGNP were also present. SGNP Veterinary Officer Dr Shailesh Pethe was also near the location where the big cats were trapped.
Volunteers from the Aarey camera trapping team—including Kunal Chaudhari, Imran Udat, Satish Lot, Wasim Athaniya, Hitendra Pachakale, Pushpak Tanavde and Shahid Khan—along with Rohit Mohite from the NGO Wild Wildlife Association as well as volunteers Raj Jadhav, Prasad Khandagale, Aditya Shinde and Sai Awade were present on the ground to assist the forest department.
At present, around 30 camera traps are active in the area to find the leopard suspected to be behind animal-human conflict in Aarey Milk Colony. The volunteers and forest department teams check the camera traps on a daily basis. A total of four trap cages have been set up in the area.
Recent leopard attacks at Aarey Milk Colony
October 4: 5-year-old Himanshu Yadav, an Adarsh Nagar resident, was hurt by a wild cat
October 24: 16-month-old Etika Lot was killed in an attack at Unit 15
November 6: Ram Yadav, 61, suffered minor injuries after an encounter
Human-wildlife conflicts in 2021
September 2: Pintu Pandit suffered injuries after an attack near Unit 32
September 18: A big cat pounced on Rohit Tilak Bahadur, 10, near Unit 31
September 26: A leopard wounded Ayush Yadav, 3, at Unit 3
September 29: Nirmal Singh, 68, was attacked near Visawa
September 30: Rajesh Rawat was targeted near Sunil Maidan
October 8: Darshan Satish Kumar, 14, was attacked by a leopard at Unit 13
October 24: UP native Balwant Yadav was attacked near Unit 31
30
The no of camera traps inside Aarey Milk Colony
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