State seeking Centre’s nod to kill leopards that are maneaters: Devendra Fadnavis

“While striking a balance to safeguard both human lives and protect animals, we have to also take strong measures to effectively tackle leopards that have become maneaters as loss of human lives have led to intimidation and fear in some districts of state. Even senior NCP leader Dilip Walse Patil held discussions with me on the issue of man-animal conflicts.”

Fadnavis said, “I have raised the issue with the Centre and union minister for forests and apprised them about the situation due to growing leopard attacks in the districts of Pune and Ahmednagar. In cases where a leopard becomes a maneater, we urge the Centre to give permission to capture and put it down if necessary.” The Chief Minister revealed there are around 1,300 leopards in Pune district. He said with shrinking forest area and rising leopard numbers, man-wildlife conflicts have risen and prove to be a challenge to the administration.

Another demand placed before the Centre by the state government includes permission to capture and relocate leopards to the rescue centre. It has also sought permission to implement a large-scale sterilisation programme to control leopard populations.

Over the past few years, human-leopard conflicts in Junnar, Ambegaon, Khed, and Shirur talukas of Pune district have risen alarmingly. In the last five years, several people have lost their lives and many others have been seriously injured in leopard attacks. Recent incidents, including the tragic deaths of a 13-year-old boy, an elderly woman, and a young girl, have intensified public concern.

Taking note of the situation, Deputy Chief Minister and Pune District Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar sanctioned a fund of Rs 11.25 crore to control the situation and ensure leopards are captured safely. He emphasised that preventing human casualties is the government’s highest priority and urged citizens not to panic. The funds will be used to establish 20 specialised rescue teams under the Junnar Forest Division. Each team will be equipped with trained shooters, trackers, tranquilising guns, rescue vehicles, advanced cameras, cages, and other modern tools.

The initiative includes 500 cages, 20 tranquilising guns, 500 trap cameras, 250 live cameras, 500 high-power torches, 500 smart sticks, and 20 medical equipment kits, with 5–6 trained personnel per team. The Junnar Forest Division spans 611.22 sq km, covering the four talukas of Junnar, Ambegaon, Khed and Shirur. The presence of major irrigation projects like Ghod, Kukadi, Manikdoh, and Pimpalgaon Joga has fostered large-scale cultivation of sugarcane, bananas, grapes, and pomegranates — crops that provide cover and prey for leopards.

Earlier, the District Planning Committee had sanctioned Rs 2 crore to procure cages, and orders for the same have already been issued.

While terming instances of leopards attacks in Junnar, Rajgurunagar, Shirur as unfortunate, state forest minister Ganesh Naik said, “We have to come out with an immediate and long term scheme. To capture leopards in these areas, 200 cages will be installed with urgency. We will procure 1,000 additional cages to trap the leopards. After capturing them, they will be relocated into deep forests. A mechanism will be developed to issue alerts to keep people informed about the leopard movements through artificial intelligence and satellite images.”