Nuh family brings home leopard cubs mistaking them for ‘large kittens’

The cubs, officials said, were brought to the village by a family who had gone to the forest area on Thursday evening to graze their cattle. They had allegedly mistook them for kittens, officials said. The team reunited the cubs with their mother around 5pm Friday

The wildlife officials on Friday morning rescued two four-day-old leopard cubs from Kotla village in Nuh, about 56 kilometres from Gurugram, and reunited them with their mother by evening. The cubs, officials said, were brought to the village by a family who had gone to the forest area on Thursday evening to graze their cattle. They had allegedly mistook them for kittens, officials said.

The cubs were traumatised as people had surrounded them and were making videos. (Parveen Kumar/ HT)

The team reunited the cubs with their mother around 5pm Friday at the same spot from where they were picked by the family.

According to wildlife officials, the children of the family late Thursday evening came across the cubs who were by themselves and started playing with them, believing them to be “very large” kittens.

While returning with the cattle, they brought the cubs home as well, and were shocked when neighbours confirmed that the animals were leopard cubs, not kittens. Officials said on being alerted, a team from the wildlife department reached the home built on the outskirts of Kotla village on Friday morning and rescued the two cubs -- a male and a female.

Three cubs were last seen with their mother by a few villagers on Wednesday but only two were found by the family and brought to the house, said officials.

MS Malik, chief conservator of forests (wildlife), said the team took the cubs to the same spot from where they were picked up by the children and the team waited for over three hours for the leopardess to come looking for her cubs.

“We deployed 10 personnel to ensure the safe return of the cubs as the mother was seen wandering about the nearby areas in search of her cubs.There was a good chance that she was furious. All technical precautions were taken by the team and they waited near the spot until the mother and cubs disappeared together inside the deep forests,” he said.

Malik said the main challenge was ensuring the safety of the cubs from the other wild animals in the area, as the little ones were making a racket, which could attract the attention of predators. “They were given milk through pumps as they were unable to latch. They were examined by a veterinary doctor before being released,” he said.

Mohammad Sajid (20), who picked up the cubs, said he had gone to the forest area on Thursday for cattle grazing. “Around 5pm, my family and I were returning with our cattle when we heard muffled cries and went to check. We found two “kittens” searching for their mother. It was cloudy and they were unattended, so we picked them up and brought them home. After some time, we gave them goat milk and they started playing with us. There was something unusual about them -- they were bigger than the average kitten -- so I called some villagers home and they confirmed them to be leopard cubs,” he said.

Sehrun Khan (26) said in the past 14 years, he has seen many animals but finding healthy cubs was a first. “They slept well at night in front of a fan and played with our children. But we were shocked to learn that they were leopard cubs. Villagers said their mother will come looking for them and might attack us or harm our children. We informed wildlife officials late Thursday night and they arrived by Friday morning,” he said.

The cubs were traumatised as people had surrounded them and were making videos.

Wildlife inspector Rajesh Chahal said the cubs were playing when they reached the house. A large group of villagers and journalists had surrounded the house by then. “We took the grazers to the spot from where they had picked up the cubs and checked for pug marks of their mother. After the doctor declared them fit to be released, the cubs were let loose. As expected, the mother came to the spot around 5pm along with one more cub and took away all three,” he said.