Nine leopards trapped in Nashik in past eight months

A surge in human-animal conflict at forest areas in Nashik has resulted in nine leopards being trapped or tranquilised by the forest department over the past eight months.

A surge in human-animal conflict at forest areas in Nashik has resulted in nine leopards being trapped or tranquilised by the forest department over the past eight months.

So far, six adults and three sub-adults have been trapped or tranquillised. (Maharashtra Forest Department)

On Thursday night, a five-year-old female leopard, said to have killed four people and injured three, was trapped in a cage by a team of six forest officials around 9pm. The trapped leopard was transported to Sanjay Gandhi National Park’s (SGNP) leopard rescue centre on Saturday.

“The leopard arrived after a five-hour journey (12.30pm to 5.30pm) from Nashik to SGNP through a tedious transportation process due to heavy rain. The animal was deemed medically fit by our veterinarian and was released at one of the rescue cages,” said Vijay Barabde, range forest officer (RFO), SGNP. Last month, a 25-day-old leopard cub was brought to SGNP from Nashik as well.

While the five-year-old leopard arrived at SGNP, Nashik forest officials are yet to confirm whether the leopard was responsible for multiple human deaths.

The leopard’s scat and swab samples have been sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad for DNA analysis for confirmation. “Until results are received, it is best to keep the animal at SGNP to avoid any other possible conflict situations. There are no rescue centres here,” said Vivek Bhadane, range forest officer (RFO), Nashik.

Meanwhile, Bhadane explained that a surge in conflict was witnessed across 25 villages along a 12-km stretch bordering Darna river (between Sinnar and Eklahare areas) where number of leopards have risen significantly.

“Farmlands are providing shelter along with a large prey base to these big cats. With three to four cases of human injuries per month, over 200 dogs have been killed by these leopards with an average of 25 dogs killed per month,” said Bhadane, adding that wild boars have also been killed. “The safety of villagers and their children has become a serious concern. Leaving children in the fields alone is now a risk.”

So far, six adults and three sub-adults have been trapped or tranquillised. “The eight other leopards were released back into the wild at undisclosed locations in the state. However, the latest case has been the most serious with four deaths,” said Bhadane. There are five leopards in the region presently, he said.

Independent experts said Nashik needed to replicate models adopted by Mumbai and Junnar that used to be high conflict zones. “In 2015, a standard operating procedure (SOP) to deal with such conflicts involving leopards was prepared. Nashik has had a problem for a long time now; it is high time they implement existing SOPs or else the situation will only escalate,” said Vidya Athreya, a wildlife biologist.

Nikit Surve from the Wildlife Conservation Society-India said, “Long term awareness for villagers, forest department and the media (similar to the Mumbai model) is the key to address this issue.”

Senior forest officials said rising conflict was a matter of concern. “Trapping leopards is not the final solution. Similar to the Junnar model, ‘living with leopards’ programme is being implemented in Nashik since a year. Our attempt is to educate villagers about coexisting with leopards. Simultaneously, we are increasing monitoring by scaling up the number of camera traps to 30 from the current less than 10, to understand animal behaviour better,” said Sunil Limaye, additional principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife west).