Hyderabad: The man-wildlife conflict in Telangana state has taken a curious turn with the state forest department flouting every rule and norm. In a rush to placate irate villagers, it recently trapped a hapless leopard cub in a cage and shifted it quickly to a zoo in Warangal.
In the process, the one-and-a-half year old cub, was removed from its family, its mother and two siblings, possibly robbing it of valuable lessons from its mother on how to survive on its own in the wild.
The cub was caught at Kamaram tanda in Chinna Shankarampet mandal in Medak district on September 11 after a cage was placed near the village where the leopard family was being frequently sighted.
As per the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines, cubs, whether of a leopard or a tiger, should not be trapped and taken away from their mothers. If accidentally trapped, such a cub should be immediately released in the same area to provide it with an opportunity to reunite with its mother. The same principle applies in case a mother is trapped.
The golden principle is, according to a forest department official, is when it is young animal, no cages should be put up, and instead, intensive monitoring should be mounted to ensure the animals and humans do not come into conflict. None of the four leopards attacked any human, or killed any cattle or sheep, officials admitted.
The process of placing trap cages to catch ‘a’ leopard, despite everyone being in agreement that there were four of them in the area, is learnt to have been precipitated with some real estate venture owners egging on villagers, and some directly approaching forest officials to catch the leopards as their presence could hurt their business prospects.
Typically, cubs of big cats start leaving their mothers between 18 and 24 months after they are born, with this period being used by their mothers to teach the cubs survival and hunting skills. Male cubs have been observed to leave their mothers earlier than their female siblings. Following the trapping of the cub and moving it to the Kakatiya Zoo in Warangal, the forest department had said that the one-and-a-half-year-old cub would be observed if it could hunt and if so, would be released in the Kawal tiger reserve in a month or two.
However, the Warangal zoo, as is the case with the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad, is not equipped for rewilding a big cat trapped in this manner.
According to Warangal forest range officer P. Bikshapati, who is also in charge of the Kakatiya Zoo: “The cub had some minor injuries for which it was treated. Since it was used to different kind of food in the wild, we are taking care of it.” Asked about plans to release it in the Kawal tiger reserve, he said he was not aware. “It was brought to the zoo, we are taking care of it and it is well now,” he said.
