'Spiked-collars, sticks, sirens': Multiple efforts underway to combat leopard attacks in Pune

Mumbai: Taking cue from the Sundarbans where people — mainly farmers, fishermen and honey-gatherers — wear face masks on the back of their heads deter attacks by the Bengal tigers, the residents of Pimparkhed village in Shirur tehsil in Pune district have adopted somewhat similar method to hoodwink leopards.

In wake of this the villagers of Pimparkhed are now using spiked-collars around their neck to deter leopard attacks.

Over the past couple of months, areas of Pune, Ahilyanagar and Nashik districts have been facing leopard attacks.

The attacks have been reported from the periphery of villages and around agricultural fields, particularly sugarcane - as they offer good hiding space and camouflage to the leopards.

In fact the human-leopard conflict was discussed in Mumbai during which Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed to treat the issue as a “state disaster” and come out with remedial measures.

Also, a proposal to exclude leopards from Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act and include them in Schedule 2 should be prepared and submitted.

Besides, Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, state Forest Minister Ganesh Naik, Disaster Management Minister Girish Mahajan, Chief Secretary Rajesh Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest) Milind Mhaiskar, Principal Secretary (Relief and Rehabilitation) Vinita Vaid Singal, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Head of Forest Force) M Srinivasa Rao, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) Shrinivas Reddy were present.

Trap cages have been set up at several places and a leopard, believed to be a man-eater, has also been shot dead. Permission for the sterilisation of leopards has been received from the Central government.

These spiked-collars are being used by villagers of Pimparkhed on their neck like a belt. People reason that since leopards first target the neck - they have adopted this method.

“We need to save ourselves. This is why we wear this... Farming is our only source of income. We cannot sit at home fearing leopard attacks... We spot a leopard every day,” said Vitthal Jadhav, a local resident.

“Something needs to be done,” he said, adding that a lot of measures have been undertaken. “Kids are being dropped and brought back in bikes, kids are not left alone,” added Jadhav, whose mother was a victim of leopard attack.

“This belt is needed to protect us,” said Sunita Dome, who works in the agriculture field. “We have taken the cue from a recent incident when a leopard attacked a dog. The dog had this kind of collar. The leopard could not catch the dog by the neck and finally it escaped death,” she said.

People go for work and agricultural fields in groups.

The Junnar, Shirur, Ambegaon and Khed tehsils in Pune district are the worst-affected areas — where drone-based surveys were also carried out. Over the past couple of months, more than a dozen leopards trapped in cages were shifted to the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre (MLRC) in Junnar.

Deputy Conservator of Forest of Junnar division Prashant Khade said that the situation is returning to normalcy. “We have rescued the conflict leopards and set to Manikdoh…our staff and rescue teams are on the ground,” he said.

“Till the situation fully normalises, we are distributing safety equipments…we have given current sticks, which generates a sound. We have also given neck bands which have a galvanised metal. These in two sizes…it has a battery and alert system,” he said.

Khade added that we have also made a stick with a trident and a ghungru, which is for self protection. “We also have an AI-based camera system. We have photos of leopards…as soon as a leopard passes in its range, a siren is sounded,” he said.

Meanwhile, NatConnect Foundation Director B N Kumar has urged the government to focus on protecting wildlife corridors, regulating forest-edge development, improving waste management, humane control of free-ranging dogs, timely relief to affected families, and trained rapid-response teams to handle incidents sensitively.