24 October,2021 08:19 AM IST | Mumbai | Ranjeet Jadhav
This picture has been used for representational purpose
It's not an animal that is always responsible for a man-animal conflict. And an incident that took place on Friday night can prove this. In a shocking incident that has come to light, some locals in Aarey Milk Colony were found provoking two leopards after the animals killed a stray pig in the area. Photos of this have now gone viral on social media.
On Friday around 7.30 pm, residents of unit 13 in Aarey Milk Colony spotted two leopards. One of the two animals killed a stray pig near a garbage dump and then ran into the bushes. But some youngsters ran after the leopard to attack it. As soon as a team of volunteers conducting a camera trapping study in the area learned about this, the members including Kunal Chaudhari, Imran Udat, Kaushal Dubey, Wasim Athaniya and Hitendra Pachkale reached the spot.
Speaking with mid-day, Chaudhari said, "When we reached the spot, we were shocked to see that a few men were roaming in the grassland where the leopard had killed its prey. They had torches in their hands and were trying to search for the leopards. There was a lot of crowd on the road and I feared it would lead to a man-animal conflict. What is shocking was that one of the men took the dead pig in his hand and posed for a camera." After being informed by the locals, the teams of Thane forest department and Aarey police station reached the spot and dispersed the crowd.