A milestone reunion of leopard cub and his mother for SOS wildlife, Forest department

Reuniting a leopard cub with its mother still brings tears of joy and smiles to many volunteers from Wildlife SOS and the Forest Department. On Monday, they reunited a 45-day-old male leopard cub in Shiroli village, Junnar Forest Division, completing their 100th successful reunion.

Sugarcane farmers discovered the cub on the farm, and Wildlife SOS and the Forest Department reunited the leopard cub with its mother in a late-night operation.

The very first rescue was in 2009 from Otur range in Junnar and Mahendra Dhore, project manager at Manikdoh, recalls the first time they were called on-site to a sugarcane farm.

“Initially, there were not many sugarcane farms and the leopards would be seen in tomato farms, so one day when we received a call from the farmers of a small leopard cub found during harvesting, most of them were eager for us to take it off their land. It was a two-month cub and the farmers wanted us to take it to our facility than keep it on their farms. It took us a long time to make them understand that the cub needs to remain where it was found, for the mother to come searching for it, but the fear of seeing a fully grown leopard would make them adamant.”

The biggest challenge that the volunteers and the official faced was of changing the mindset of people.

“We had to sensitise them to the fact that they can’t survive without the mothers and that if the mother can’t see her cubs, she would turn hostile, leading to conflict. But now over the past years, the farmers have become more understanding and proactive,” added Dhore.

While every cub found has to undergo a mandatory health examination, the team also realised the importance of time needed to bring the cub back to the place it was found.

“The timeline for the reunion process was an issue to deal with. Over the period, we’ve discovered that the first 72 hours are critical for the reunion to be a success, so we follow a protocol of doing the reunions on the same day,” said Dr Chandan Sawane, veterinary officer, Wildlife SOS, who aids in the health of cubs.

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder and CEO, Wildlife SOS said, “Community-based conservation is the most important tool for mitigating human-wildlife conflict. Earlier, we had no camera traps but had to work on instinct to see when the mother would return but now with technology, we can be assured that the reunion will happen smoothly. Besides the awareness of the local community plays a huge role here in avoiding any kind of mishap and ensuring that these cubs are safely reunited with their mothers. Earlier, the locals were apprehensive of our reunion efforts and would demand we take the cubs away, however, now they are more sensitive to their plight and are swift to report such incidents to us which has helped to these reunions a success.”