Female leopard radio-collared in Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park

For the first time in the history of Mumbai, a female leopard was radio-collared at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), the only national park in the world to be located in metropolitan limits and having the highest leopard density.

The female leopard, Savitri, was radio-collared on Saturday under the guidance of G Mallikarjuna, Conservator of Forests and Director, SGNP.

The leopard was named Savitri after the legendary Indian social reformer and educationist Savitribai Phule, the wife of social reformer and thinker Mahatma Jyotiba Phule.

The project that involves GPS telemetry where radio collars that communicate via satellite will be used on the Mumbai leopards so that we understand them better and can implement better conservation models for their protection.

This work will be done in collaboration with Wildlife Conservation Society - India and Wildlife Conservation Trust. It is supported by Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies (RNP) and the Reliance Foundation.

The SGNP and its peripheral areas is home to 45-odd leopards – and is a matter of animal-human interaction studies.

Mumbai has always been famous for being one of the most unique homes to wild leopards and has also shown how Mumbaikars co-exist with these large cats. The Maharashtra Forest Department (MFD) in SGNP and Thane Forest Division regularly monitor the leopards using camera traps for better management of leopards in this urban landscape.

“Since leopards are extremely secretive animals, we know very little about them. To understand these big cats of Mumbai better, there is the need to use the latest technology like using satellite collars to study them. This study will play a key role in helping the forest department answer questions like their land-use patterns, their movements across roads with busy traffic, how they avoid humans,” said Mallikarjuna.

It may be recalled a decade ago, a radio-collared leopard walked 125 km from Malshej Ghat to SGNP and its entire journey was documented by wildlife researchers. Its road trip not only provided some vital information on its behaviour but even fascinated journalists who did several news stories about it that even helped the common man understand. It even inspired a Marathi movie named Ajoba.

A total of five leopards will be collared with GPS collars which are similar to the one the leopard Ajoba wore. Three females and two male leopards will be collared over the two-year project period.
“We are hoping that this Savitri will also enlighten and educate us and show us a way ahead in terms of knowledge about the leopards in Mumbai,” he added.
Spread in 103 sq km in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR), the SGNP is home to 254 species of birds, 40 species of animals, 78 species of reptiles and amphibians, 150 species of butterflies and a staggering 1,300 species of plants.