Forest officials claimed that the leopard would undergo a complete medical check up to decide the possibility if it could be released in the wild.
With a green signal from the State Chief Wildlife Warden (CWW), the leopard which was trapped at Talasari on Tuesday by the forest department after one of the two people it had attacked succumbed to the injuries, will now be shifted to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).
Forest officials claimed that the leopard, whose transportation formalities were being arranged from Dahanu to SGNP on Saturday so that it could be sent on late Saturday or early Sunday, would undergo a complete medical check up to decide the possibility if it could be released in the wild. "We have made the arrangements for the transportation and now vets and forest officials at SGNP will decide about the whether the leopard needs to be kept in captive or released keeping its health condition in mind," said N Ladkat, deputy conservator of forest (DCF) Dahanu forest division.
However, sources in the forest department said the fact that the female leopard is already nine years old and has two canines missing, which in future might lead her to attack only easy prey like livestocks, could work against her release back in the wild.
Dr Dinesh Vinherkar of Wildlife Conservation and Animal Welfare Association, which helped the forest department trap the leopard, said that the animal was kept in a cage at centre run with the help of Dahanu forest division. "After this leopard was trapped, it carried out the medical examination and found that her canines were missing. It's sad that any wild animal has to be kept caged but if at all this leopard cannot be released in the wild due to her missing canines and age, she should at least be kept in the rescue centre, which has a large area for leopards to move around," he said.
Officials from SGNP said that the leopard as per direction of CWW will be sent to them and after carrying out medical examination will be kept in the rescue centre.
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