Mumbai: Leopard captured in Aarey Colony; 2nd feline to be caught in 5 days

Mumbai: The forest department has caught another male leopard from the Aarey Colony in the early hours on Sunday morning, this is the second feline to be captured in the last five days, after an attack by a leopard which killed a toddler in the area last week. 

According to the officials, the leopard walked into a cage trap set up in unit 15 of the Aarey Colony,  located close to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). The animal was later taken to a rescue centre at the SGNP. The officials are yet to ascertain if it’s the same animal that killed the toddler. 

Previously, on Wednesday, a male leopard was captured in Aarey's unit number 17 and was also taken to the rescue centre in the SGNP. “There are chances of putting the first leopard back in the wild because further monitoring revealed that during the attack on the toddler, this feline was seen at some other location,” said Pawan Sharma, founder of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), who’s team has been volunteering for the trapping and monitoring of the leopards.

The incident occurred last week on October 24 when a one-and-a-half-year-old girl was following her mother towards a temple and was attacked and killed by the leopard.

According to the forest officials, after the incident, the forest department put up three cages at strategic locations in the vicinity of the incident to capture the animal along with the monitoring of movements of other leopards through 30 camera traps.

Around 30 wildlife volunteers, members of NGOs, forest department officials and staff of the SNGP are working together to deal with the incidents of human-animal conflict in the area.