CZA seeks more details on state’s leopard rescue centre projects before approval

Nashik Range Chief Conservator of Forests (Territorial) Gajendra Hire told HT that the CZA recently sought more details about the proposed layouts, including internal arrangements, facilities and visitor areas at the two centres

PUNE: The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has sought additional details from the state forest department on its proposal to establish two new leopard rescue centres in Nashik and Ahilyanagar.

Pune, India - March 30, 2023: In an operation, Wildlife SOS and the Maharashtra Forest Department reunited a 15-day-old leopard cub with its mother near Kailash Nagar village, located in Junnar division of Pune district, India, on Thursday, March 30, 2023. The cub was discovered by farmers while harvesting their sugarcane fields. In the evening the team arranged for the cub to be returned to the field where it was found. Cameras set-up captured the mother leopard slowly approaching the field at midnight. She gently picked him up by the scruff of his neck and retreated to a safer location. (HT PHOTO)

Nashik Range Chief Conservator of Forests (Territorial) Gajendra Hire told HT that the CZA recently sought more details about the proposed layouts, including internal arrangements, facilities and visitor areas at the two centres.

“The queries are technical in nature. We have reverted to the CZA with all the details on the issues it had raised. We are optimistic that it will approve our proposal as soon as possible,” Hire said.

The CZA is a statutory body under the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change. Its approval is mandatory for the state government to establish the two centres.

“Once the CZA gives its approval, the work of establishing the two centres will begin,” Hire said.

Forest department officials said the increasing number of leopard rescues in Nashik and Ahilyanagar had put pressure on the existing centres to accommodate the animals rescued from human settlements and conflict zones.

In 2025, nearly 45 leopards that had strayed from forest areas were rescued by the forest department in Nashik and Ahilyanagar, while officials reported at least 10 cases of human-leopard conflict in the two districts.

The state chief minister approved the proposal to establish the two new centres in November last year, following which the forest department submitted the proposal to the CZA earlier this year.

The proposed centre at Rahuri in Ahilyanagar district will have a capacity to house 200 leopards, while the centre at Mhasrul in rural Nashik will have capacity for 300 leopards.