Forest department rescues, reunites four leopard cubs with mother

PUNE The forest department and Wildlife SOS reunited four leopard cubs, found in a sugarcane field in Kabadwadi village located in Junnar taluka of Pune, with their mother

PUNE The forest department and Wildlife SOS reunited four leopard cubs, found in a sugarcane field in Kabadwadi village located in Junnar taluka of Pune, with their mother. Farmers alerted the authorities after spotting the cubs while harvesting cane in the village. The Junnar forest department called in Wildlife SOS team functioning out of the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Center for reinforcements.

The forest department and Wildlife SOS reunited four leopard cubs, found in a sugarcane field in Kabadwadi village located in Junnar taluka of Pune, with their mother. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

Wildlife SOS veterinary doctor Dr Nikhil Bangar said the cubs, two females and two males, are around two months old. The cubs were transported to Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre for medical examination and later reunited with their mother after finding them fit.

The team waited until nightfall to set the operation in motion as leopards are most active during the said time. The cubs were placed in a safe box and kept in the same location they were found in. Camera traps installed to monitor the cubs, confirmed that they were successfully reunited with their mother. The mother cat is seen taking away her young ones in the CCTV camera footage obtained from the area.

Ajit Shinde, range forest officer, Junnar division said, “We are happy to see that villagers are becoming more sensitised towards wildlife.”

Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, said, “Time is of the essence in these situations as the longer the separation between cubs and mother, the harder it is to reunite them.”

At least six incidents of leopard cubs being found in sugarcane fields in Junnar have been reported to the forest department in the past two months.