Three Leopard Cubs Rescued from Sugarcane Field in Pune District Reunited with Their Mother

Three leopard cubs had been rescued from a sugar cane field in the Vadgaon Kandali village, located in Otur forest range of Junnar in Pune district by state forest department officials and Wildlife SOS teams. The 8-week old cubs were taken into custody and kept under observation for a few hours before being released into the wild and reunited with their mother. According to The Indian Express, the sugarcane harvesting season also coincides with the breeding season for big cats like leopards. As a result, leopards and other similar species often rely on crops like sugar cane with tall grass/plants to protect their offspring from being preyed upon.

According to a forest officer, such encounters become increasingly common during the harvesting and pre-harvesting season.

Recently, while harvesting, sugarcane farmers chanced upon the three baby leopards in the field and immediately alerted the village rescue team. This team then informed Wildlife SOS and state forest departments who immediately sent a team of professionals with medical kits and other equipment to conduct an on-site check-up of the cubs.

Upon investigation, it was revealed that the cubs were eight weeks old and there were two males and one female.

After being kept in observation for a few hours, the team took the leopard cubs to the same field where they were found. While the team waited in hiding, a female cub — their mother — came out of the sugarcane field and then took away her cubs.

India’s leopard population increased to over 12,000 in 2018 from around 8,000 in 2014, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in December, asserting the rise in their numbers coming on the heels of similar reports on tigers, lions, shows the country is protecting its ecology and biodiversity well. Releasing the Status of Leopards in India 2018′ report, the minister said, the leopard population has been estimated using camera trapping method.

As per the report, India’s leopard population in 2018 was estimated at 12,852, with maximum big cats being found in Madhya Pradesh at 3,421, followed by Karnataka at 1,783 and Maharashtra 1,690. As for region wise distribution, the highest number of 8,071 leopards were found in central India and eastern ghats, which include the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

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