Aurangabad, May 20:
In a bizarre incident, two cubs, which got separated from a leopardess mother, got reunited after few hours, on Thursday midnight. The incident took place at Paithankheda village in the jurisdiction of Waluj police station. The rescue team of forest played a vital role in the reunion.
It so happened that a group of labourers from Narayanpur including Sabzar Pathan went for sugarcane cutting work at Paithankheda on Thursday. Pathan spotted two cubs of leopard in the sugarcane field. He mustered courage to pick the cubs and handed them over to Waluj police station.
Acting upon the information, a team of forest officials comprising R S Muley, deputy conservator (forest) Arun Patil, Sachin Shinde and range forest officer (RFO) Dada Taur contacted the police and took possession of these cubs.
In camera process
According to forest officials, the leopardess would return to meet her cubs at the same place from where the labourer lifted them. Considering this possibility, they brought a vegetable crate and placed the cubs in it. The whole process of rescuing was captured in the camera. Later on, rescuing team of forest officials released the cubs at the same spot at Paithankheda. Besides, a team of foresters (from Paithan) Sudhir Dhawan and Prakash Suryawanshi were deployed on the task to keep a watch on the cubs during the night hours.
According to a member of team and forester of Adul (in Paithan) Manoj Kamble,”The whole process revealed that the leopardess was unaware about the misplacement of cubs during her absence. We guessed it through her body language. As a routine, she arrived and held the cubs, one at a time, and disappeared in the sugarcane farm, spread on the ridge of Kham River. This isolated belt of 10-12 kms length sans mobility of human beings. Besides, the availability of food chain and water seemed to have encouraged leopardess to make the place as its natural habitat (home).”
DoF appeals
Meanwhile, the officials from Department of Forest (DoF) have appealed to the villagers not to go along in the farms, especially during the evening hours. Always visit the farms in groups. They also appealed to carry a wooden stick fixed with anklet bells to its ends, cover your neck portion with muffler, do not work by bending and play loud voice depicting people’s conversation on mobile phones etc. The awareness is being done to avoid man and animal conflict and for the safety of the human beings.