File image of a leopard in cage. (Representative image)
Credit: Maharashtra Forest Department/Wildlife SOS
Mumbai: Amid increasing incidents of leopard-animal conflict and three deaths in Shirur tehsil of Pune district, teams of sharpshooters and experts have shot dead a suspected man-eater leopard during a midnight operation.
Since the weekend, the Shirur tehsil had witnessed a series of protests against the Maharashtra Forest Department during which they had torched a vehicle and also staged a blockade at the Belhe–Jejuri State Highway at Panchatale and the Pune-Nashik Highway near Manchar.
The three victims of leopard attacks are Shivanya Shailesh Bombe (5) on October 12, Bhagubai Ranganath Jadhav (70) on October 22, and Rohan Vilas Bombe (13) on November 2.
The incidents sparked massive public outrage across Junnar, Shirur, Ambegaon and Khed tehsils of Pune and people were living in fear.
The issue escalated to the level of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, who is the Guardian Minister of Pune district and Forest Minister Ganesh Naik.
According to reports, the man-eater leopard was spotted 400 to 500 metres from the attack site on Tuesday night.
The team of sharpshooters fired a tranquilising dart, but it failed.
As the leopard became aggressive and was approaching them to attack, the shooters opened fire around, killing the cat.
The leopard was in the age group of 5 to 6 years, according to officials of the Junnar Forest division.
The carcass was shown to villagers in Pimparkhed and later shifted to the Manikdoh Rescue Centre for post-mortem.
Earlier, Pune’s Conservator of Forests Ashish Thakare obtained necessary approval for capture and elimination from the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife).
The operation team included Deputy Conservator of Forests (Junnar) Prashant Khade, Assistant Conservators Smita Rajhans and Amrut Shinde, Range Forest Officer Nilkanth Gavhane, wildlife veterinarian Dr Satwik Pathak and sharpshooters Zubin Postwalla and Dr Prasad Dabholkar.
Past incident in State involved Avni
This is the second incident of shooting of a big cat as it had turned man-eater. It may be recalled, 2 November, 2018, tigress T1, known by her nickname, Avni, who was aged between five and six years, was shot dead near the Borati village in Pandharkawada division of Yavatmal in Vidarbha region. The killing, though following guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), resulted in a major national issue. Avni was protecting the two cubs in the vicinity of the Tipeshwar Tiger Sanctuary. Avni was linked to 13 human deaths in Pandharkawada.