It was around 9am, when one of the employees of the school spotted the leopard hiding behind an air-conditioner unit outside an auditorium in the compound. He immediately contacted forest officials and a team from the SGNP reached the spot around 10.30am. "It is huge," said the staffer who saw the leopard. "Wild animals usually do not bother with humans and we know we are not in danger."
Whistling Woods shares a wall with the national park and forest officials suspect that the animal must have strayed into the premises, in search of preys, like dogs. "Leopards usually enter residential localities in search of dogs that are easy preys," said SGNP's veterinary officer Dr Sanjeev Pinjarkar. "It's important to safeguard the people and we have asked them to disperse from the compound. We are now waiting for the leopard to come out of its hiding; for the rescue operation, our personnel are equipped with tranquilizer guns, a snare with a small trap and a first-aid kit."
Once the leopard comes out in the open, the rescue team will tranquilize it and take it to the medical centre inside the national park for a routine check-up. "Only after a check-up will the animal be released into the wild," said Pinjarkar. Till late in the evening, he told TOI that the rescue team was still waiting to capture the leopard. "It is not in our hands. We cannot shoot in the air with the tranquilizer guns. We cannot antagonize the animal and do not want to take any drastic action as that may pose danger to the people around," said Pinjarkar.
Though the number of man-animal conflicts has come down, sightings of big cats in peripheral areas of the SGNP have gone up. Last month, a leopard was spotted inside Film City but the animal slinked away in a few minutes.
On June 30, another leopard was sighted by two residents of Royal Palms in Goregaon; one of the residents, Padmaja Krishnan, captured a photgraph of the animal walking on the verandah of her row house and her neighbour, Palash Kashyap, took a picture of the same leopard perched on the boundary wall of another house.
16 hours on, leopard in film school leaves for forest
Read more:whistling woods|Subhash Ghai|Leopard|Forest|Film School
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MUMBAI: Around 16 hours after a leopard was spotted inside Whistling Woods on Saturday, the animal finally came out of its hiding and left for the forest at 1.15am on Sunday. Though a team from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park lay in wait to capture the leopard, but the personnel did not have to ensnare or tranquilize the animal as it came out of its hiding and slunk out of the compound.
Around 9am on Saturday, a guard of the film academy of director Subhash Ghai spotted the leopard hiding behind an air-conditioner unit of an auditorium. He alerted the academy authorities and soon after, a rescue team from the SGNP reached the spot. But no amount of cracker bursting or baiting could drive the leopard out of its hideout as it was too scared to do so, an official said. "With more and more people dropping by to see it and the media pouring in, the animal withdrew into the cranny. It even refused to be lured out by a dog, which we used as a bait. After dark, the crowd departed and later, we also pulled out our rescue team, leaving behind four to five men to keep an eye on the leopard. When it became quiet late at night, the leopard came out of its hiding and returned to SGNP," said G T Chavan, deputy conservator of forests (Thane). "The place was barely 50 meters from the national park boundary."
Officials attribute the recent rise in leopards straying fr-om forest areas into human territories to the overlapping boundaries of the two zones. New residences were coming up in many parts of Aarey forests. According to SGNP officials, it may be a picturesque location, but it is nestled in the middle of the jungle, making it accessible to leopards in search of easy prey. "As the green thickets have been cleared, it is easier for leopards to spot their preys. The area has human population, dogs and hens. Carcasses of buffaloes are also easy to come by," a forest official said.
"To ensure that no untoward incident occurs, forest officials constantly patrol the area. Pamphlets have also been distributed among the residents to spread awareness on what steps they should take if they spot a leopard." According to Chavan, though the wild cats do stray into human habitation , more often than not, they get scared and go into hiding. "We have advised people not to tease the animals by bursting crackers or blowing horns. They should alert a rescue team and the area should be cleared of people so that the animal can retreat back to its habitat," Chavan added.
Around 9am on Saturday, a guard of the film academy of director Subhash Ghai spotted the leopard hiding behind an air-conditioner unit of an auditorium. He alerted the academy authorities and soon after, a rescue team from the SGNP reached the spot. But no amount of cracker bursting or baiting could drive the leopard out of its hideout as it was too scared to do so, an official said. "With more and more people dropping by to see it and the media pouring in, the animal withdrew into the cranny. It even refused to be lured out by a dog, which we used as a bait. After dark, the crowd departed and later, we also pulled out our rescue team, leaving behind four to five men to keep an eye on the leopard. When it became quiet late at night, the leopard came out of its hiding and returned to SGNP," said G T Chavan, deputy conservator of forests (Thane). "The place was barely 50 meters from the national park boundary."
Officials attribute the recent rise in leopards straying fr-om forest areas into human territories to the overlapping boundaries of the two zones. New residences were coming up in many parts of Aarey forests. According to SGNP officials, it may be a picturesque location, but it is nestled in the middle of the jungle, making it accessible to leopards in search of easy prey. "As the green thickets have been cleared, it is easier for leopards to spot their preys. The area has human population, dogs and hens. Carcasses of buffaloes are also easy to come by," a forest official said.
"To ensure that no untoward incident occurs, forest officials constantly patrol the area. Pamphlets have also been distributed among the residents to spread awareness on what steps they should take if they spot a leopard." According to Chavan, though the wild cats do stray into human habitation , more often than not, they get scared and go into hiding. "We have advised people not to tease the animals by bursting crackers or blowing horns. They should alert a rescue team and the area should be cleared of people so that the animal can retreat back to its habitat," Chavan added.
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