The 20-day-old cubs were kept under observation for a few hours. (Express Photo) The 20-day-old cubs were kept under observation for a few hours. (Express Photo)

FOUR LEOPARD cubs were rescued by Wildlife SOS and the Forest Department from a sugarcane field in Takali Haji village under Shirur range on March 24. The 20-day-old cubs were kept under observation for a few hours and later reunited with the mother. Since 2009, a total of 50 leopard cubs have been rescued and reunited, said senior veterinarian at Wildlife SOS, doctor Ajay Deshmukh.

Deshmukh said he had conducted a meticulous examination of the cubs for ticks and injuries and found them healthy and fit for release. “Every year, the onset of the harvest season brings about the unavoidable encounter with leopards and their cubs in the tall dense sugarcane fields of Maharashtra,” he added.

Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO of Wildlife SOS, said due to to a variety of factors, including deforestation, habitat encroachment and poaching, leopards are continuously forced to leave their forested homes and venture into buffer areas. The tall sugarcane fields provide a safe cover for leopards to give birth and rear their young ones. But, this also increases the possibilities of man-leopard conflicts…,” he said.

In the recent incident, farmers of Takali Haji village stumbled upon four cubs while they were harvesting sugarcane crops. “I received a call from the farmers, following which I alerted the team of Wildlife SOS. The team operates out of Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre at Junnar,” Tushar Dhamdhere, Range Forest Officer at Shirur, told The Indian Express.

A team of four Wildlife SOS rescuers and three forest officers left for the site, which is 60 km from Pune. Deshmukh said there were two male and female cubs each, around twenty days old. Despite initial opposition from local villagers, the team arranged for the cubs to be reunited with their mother.

“They were more understanding of the situation once they realised that by not reuniting the cubs with their mother, the villagers would only incur the wrath of their mother. The cubs were placed in a safe box and after waiting for about an hour, a female leopard emerged from the forest, checked her cubs and carried them away,” said Deshmukh.

Deshmukh, along with other forest officials, pointed out that mother leopards can turn very aggressive when their cubs go missing and can retaliate. “Hence, we try our best to reunite missing cubs with their mother to avoid instances of man-leopard conflicts. The harvest season witnesses highest instances of conflict because the farmers move into the fields to cut down sugarcane stalks,” said Deshmukh. Satyanarayan said efforts have been stepped up to ensure that leopard cubs that get separated from their mothers don’t end up in captivity. “We want them to live freely in their natural habitat and learn the skills of survival in the wild,” he added.

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