The carcass of the female leopard was discovered on Tuesday (Representative Image) | Photo Credit: BCCL

Mumbai: Maharashtra state forest department has launched a combing operation in Mumbai's Goregoan and neighbouring areas after authorities discovered the carcass of a female leopard with 11 nails missing from near Film City in Aarey Colony on Tuesday. Officials with the department said that they retrieved 28 active wire traps and snares from the area during a drive on Wednesday.

Local officials had recovered the bodies of the leopard and a Sambar trapped in a metal snare, similar to the ones recovered a day later. Found barely metres away from the Film City entrance, the deer was missing its head and its leg was caught in a metallic wire. Deputy Conservator of Forests, Thane, Jitendra Ramgaonkar told Indian Express that volunteers were divided into three teams to search the area for such traps on Wednesday. He added that the teams have finished searching half of the Film City area and have destroyed all active snares they came across.

Officials with the state forest department said that these snares illustrate how poachers are extremely active near the Film City area of the Aarey forest. Spread over 520 acres, Film City shares its boundary with the Sanjay Gandhi National Part and Aarey Colony which is known for its leopard population. Responding to pleas by forest rangers, Niwrutti Marale, Joint MD of Film City said that a proposal to erect boundary walls around Film City is in the works.

Data released by the Delhi-based Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) stated that in 2018, India recorded its highest number of leopard deaths since 2014. The report went further to claim that 74 per cent of the 460 leopards which died last year were killed in either train or road accidents while the remaining were poached for purposes of trafficking.

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