The incident occurred on Monday afternoon near Lohara village and it was the locals who alerted the forest department about the leopard’s accident.
A one minute video of a leopard left severely injured in a hit and run case while crossing the Chandrapur-Mul Road near Tadoba has not only left wildlife lovers aghast but has yet again brought in focus the urgent need for proper mitigation measures on roads passing through wildlife rich areas.
As per the forest department, the incident occurred on Monday afternoon near Lohara village and it was the locals who alerted the forest department about the leopard’s accident. “Our staff rushed to the site and we managed to rescue the leopard, which was injured but still very alert and aggressive. It was tranquillised and brought to a temporary rescue centre and was under treatment of a local Veterinarian and will be shifted on Wednesday to Gorewada Zoo for further treatment,” said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Chandrapur (Territorial) Ashok Sonkusare.
Dr Kundan Podchalwar the Vet who treated the leopard said that the leopard has been left with a fractured femur in the right hind limb. “It is very aggressive and even trying to attack and by its movement it seems that it only has injuries to its femur in the right hind limb. We have given it initial treatment and its further treatment will be carried out at Gorewada zoo,” he said.
The video footage was recorded by some eyewitness who witnessed the leopard being knocked down and while it captured the leopards trauma it did not have footage of the vehicle knocking it down. The leopard can be seen limping from the road and rushing towards the forested patch till it goes and sits under a tree. “Its evident from the video that the leopard was in severe pain and could barely walk as it can be seen trying to run away but since it could barely walked it limped and then decided to give up and sit, despite some people gathering nearby it still did not move,” said a Mumbai based Vet who saw the video and added that the leopard needs to be properly checked for internal injuries too.
Sarosh Lodhi, Founder member, CLaW an independent forum of wildlife enthusiasts from Maharashtra said that this road was notorious for several roadkills. “All kinds of wildlife including even Tigers are seen crossing this road as both sides of the road has forested patches. While there is more emphasis given for new roads being built to have mitigation measures for wildlife crossing it was more important to build these on old roads at priority,” he said.
Dr Anish Andheria, President, Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) who has been vociferously campaigning for proper wildlife crossings and underpasses to avoid roadkills shared that the number of animals dying due to road accidents is much greater than dead bodies found on the road. “One should understand that over 90% of roadkills are not even reported. No one accounts for the smaller mammals and reptiles that die traumatic deaths after coming under speeding vehicles. Having proper infrastructure is a must with so many roads being planned around wildlife areas,” he said.
Maharashtra on December 29 had lost one of its young dominant male tiger Bajirao from Bor Tiger Reserve after he was found dead- knocked down by a vehicle around 7.30pm on on the Nagpur-Amravati Highway stretch around 40 kilometers away from Nagpur.
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 "The injured leopard in Chandrapur")
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