A leopard was rescued from the Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) on Thursday morning, after its frequent visits in the area for over two weeks. Forest officers released the leopard into the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) within three hours.
Officials said the leopard had attacked two stray dogs near the SEEPZ Metro station site on December 9. The attack had spread panic among residents, who heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday after its capture.
Officials have been watching the big cat’s movements through four cameras in the area. “We were monitoring every move. The leopard visited the premises of companies in the area every night and hid in the green patch behind the municipal water tank during the day. After observing its activities, we laid a trap for it and caught it around 5.30 a.m.,” said wildlife warden Mayur Kamat.
With the help of a microchip implanted in the leopard, forest officials found it had entered the Woodland Society in Marol some time ago. “We had set up the trap with a prey,” said Deputy Conservator of Forest Jitendra Ramgaonkar.
The big cat was released in SGNP by 8.30 am. “Although their natural habitat is in forest, they occasionally visit other areas to find prey. In SEEPZ, there are many stray dogs and chickens roaming around,” he said.
Meanwhile, the 10 to 12-day-old leopard cub that was found abandoned by its mother at Yeoor Hills in Thane is recovering well. Forest officials attempted to reunite the cub with the mother many times, to no avail. Anwar Ahmed, Chief Conservator of Forest, SGNP, said, “We have tried to unite the cub with its mother three times but have failed. The cub is currently in captive care and is doing well. We are feeding it formula milk every one-and-a-half hours. Although the formula milk is not better than mother’s milk, it is the best we can give right now.”
SGNP also received a four-year-old male tiger named Sultan from Nagpur on Thursday for breeding. Sultan was in Nagpur’s Gorewada Rescue Centre run by the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra.
Mr. Ahmed said the park only had four female tigers and one male. “We required a male tiger for breeding. Therefore, we asked for one from the Gorewada centre,” he said.
The tiger was brought by a rescue vehicle to SGNP after a journey of over 800 km. It was reportedly captured last year from the Brahmapuri forest division after it killed two villagers.
