‘Excessive leopard captures in Nashik due to fear psychosis’
MUMBAI: Fear psychosis among villagers due to human-animal conflict has led to a surge in leopard captures in Nashik, said forest officials, adding that all captured big cats may not have been involved in the conflict. The Maharashtra forest department caught a sub-adult female leopard from farmlands at Palse village in Nashik, early Tuesday morning. The animal was then transported to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) on Wednesday. This is the third conflict-related capture within a month and 11th over eight months. Nashik forest officials said there are two more leopards in the area and they plan to trap them as early as possible.
Five deaths and five serious injuries (including two children) have been reported since December 2019 at the 12-km stretch along Darna river (between Sinnar and Eklahare) where leopard numbers have risen significantly. Apart from three leopards sent to SGNP, eight were captured and released at undisclosed locations (forest areas) between December and April.
The forest department on Wednesday said based on a report received from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, an adult male leopard was responsible for conflict cases. The report was based on swab samples of four of the five victims.
“While DNA reports matching those of the trapped leopards are yet to be received, the latest report states that a large male leopard was responsible for four deaths. We estimate that none of the leopards captured so far were involved in the conflict,” said Sunil Limaye, additional principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife-west). On July 12 and July 2, a two-year-old male leopard and five-year-old female leopard were lured into trap cages at Chehedi village and Samangaon, and transported to SGNP.
“The sub-adult male does not exhibit extreme fierceness nor any traits that he may have been in conflict. It is now clear that the male leopard, dangerous to human life, is still at large and is one of the two leopards yet to be caught,” said Limaye adding that releasing captured animals at the moment in Nashik was risky. “There is a fear psychosis among villagers. Once we have caught the problem animal, immediate efforts will be made to rehabilitate the three captured leopards.”
Vivek Bhadane, range forest officer, Nashik said, “We are under tremendous pressure from local villagers. Any lapse in tracing the male leopard, which is yet to be captured, still poses a great threat to human safety. For this reason, capturing as many leopards and moving them to captivity is helping us trace the problem animal and also acts as a temporary comfort for villagers.” Over 200 dogs, close to 100 wild boars and cattle have been killed, said Bhadane adding, “An average of 25 dogs have been killed per month since December.”
Wildlife experts said Nashik had reached the worst case scenario for human-animal conflict. “The only way forward is to engage villagers to collectively address the issue of leopard presence in croplands. Nashik needs to have rapid response teams to tackled this problem,” said Vidya Athreya, wildlife biologist.
MUMBAI: The Matunga police on Wednesday arrested second accused Vishal Ashok More alias Vitthal Kanya, 20, from Kalyan railway station in connection with the vandalism at Rajgruh, the house of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, located at the Hindu Colony, Dadar in Central Mumbai. The first accused Umesh Sitaram Jadhav, 35, was arrested two days after the incident on July 9.
“Both the accused were captured in the CCTV camera installed inside the house. Jadhav was found standing outside the Rajgruh, while More went inside the house and damaged the pots in the compound,” said senior inspector Vijaysingh Ghatge of the Matunga police station.
The incident occurred on July 7. Jadhav was arrested from Matunga, while More was absconding. The CCTV footage was circulated to all the police stations across Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai and the railway police were also alerted.
During the search, police team spotted More at Kalyan station on Wednesday afternoon. After verification, he was brought to the police station and was arrested. It does not appear that he did this intentionally, but we are investigating, Ghatge said.