Wildlife activists and experts finally heaved a sigh of relief after forest department released the leopard they trapped from Aarey milk colony on Sunday night.
DNA had first reported on December 24 about how forest officials from Thane territorial wing had set up trap that led to a five-year-old male leopard being trapped at Mataipada. While the forest department claimed that they had been receiving complaints from local tribals from inside Aarey Colony about a leopard being sighted, the move had angered not only wildlife lovers but also experts on man-animal conflict mitigation.
According to Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) Kishore Thakre it was on Sunday late night that the leopard was released. “The leopard was found fit for being released and hence it was released in its natural habitat,” he said adding that they will also help an NGO start an awareness campaign.
Dr Vidya Athreya who has been researching leopards and had been vocal against the trapping of the leopard at Aarey said that it was a relief to know that the leopard has been released. “Mumbai had witnessed a huge surge in man-leopard conflicts during the time when maximum trappings were being carried out. As soon as the approach was changed by the forest department, the result was that even the conflict and attacks reduced. The forest department should be focusing more on creating awareness and not trapping them,” she said.
Random trapping of leopards has been criticised by several wildlife experts across the country. In fact as per the guidelines issued by Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change on man-leopard conflict, a mere sighting of a leopard should not be the reason for trapping leopards.
In fact, experts have also suggested that regular patrolling be carried out in the area of the release. Krishna Tiwari who has been working on spreading awareness to mitigate man-animal conflict in tribal hamlets across Mumbai and had raised a red flag against trapping of the leopard said that the best way to deal with conflict was to empower the tribals and locals with knowledge about ways of avoiding a conflict. “The Forest department should simply intensify and have more frequent training and awareness programmes on mitigating conflict and this should continue for a longer period,” he said.
