Leopard believed to be behind attacks at Aarey finally trapped

In an extremely challenging operation that lasted 24 days, the Thane forest department and Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) leopard rescue team, among others, on Wednesday trapped a leopardess, C57, that is suspected to have attacked people at Aarey Milk Colony.

On October 24, 16-month-old Eitika Lot lost her life after she was picked up by a leopard at around 6 am. The child had followed her mother, who had left her home to light a diya in a nearby temple, which abuts a jungle.

On November 6, at around 8 pm, one Ram Yadav, 61, who works on a cattle farm near Unit 15, close to the forest patch, was talking on his phone when a leopard injured him. He suffered minor injuries. A few days later, a 38-year-old woman was attacked while walking near the forest patch near Aarey Dairy.

Also read: 2 leopardesses trapped at Aarey Milk Colony

Since the conflict began, the Thane forest department, the SGNP leopard rescue team, volunteers from the Aarey Milk Colony camera trapping team and NGO Wild Wildlife Association (WWA) have been attempting to capture the big cat responsible for the attacks.

On Tuesday morning, two leopardesses were trapped in separate cages at Unit 15. Sources from the forest department told mid-day that C57 was also spotted in the vicinity, and so Assistant Conservator of Forest Girija Desai, on the instructions of the Deputy Conservator of Forest Santosh Saste, planned a strategy with the help of various officials and volunteers.

On Tuesday night, a trap cage was activated at Unit 15 and live cameras were set up to keep an eye on the leopard's movement. In the wee hours of Wednesday, a leopard walked into the cage. It was taken to the leopard rescue centre at SGNP.

Saste told mid-day, "Following the incident of human-leopard conflict in Aarey Milk Colony, we had zeroed in on a female leopard, which we believe was responsible. Assistant Conservator of Forestry Girija Desai and Range Forest Officers Rakesh Bhoir and Vijay Barabde were present along with leopard rescue teams from Thane and SGNP (on Wednesday). SGNP Veterinary Officer Dr Shailesh Pethe was also nearby."

Volunteers from the Aarey camera trapping team - including Kunal Chaudhari, Imran Udat, Satish Lot, Wasim Athaniya, Hitendra Pachakale, Pushpak Tanavde and Shahid Khan - along with Rohit Mohite from WWA and volunteers Raj Jadhav, Prasad Khandagale, Aditya Shinde, Sai Awade and Parag Raorane also assisted the forest department.

Mayur Kamath, honorary wildlife warden; Pawan Sharma from NGO RAWW; biologist Nikit Surve, and his volunteers also helped. At present, about 30 camera traps are active in the area, and the camera trapping exercise will continue.

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Day in October when a leopard killed a 16-month-old girl