Mumbai’s leopard country harmed due to fire blaze?

MUMBAI: NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – On 3^rd December, a massive fire erupted on the outskirts of Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Goregaon which spread across 3 km in Aarey Colony and inched towards nearby buildings. 70 fire personnel were deployed to douse the blaze.

After the fire blazed near Aarey Colony, once again the focus has shifted to the biodiversity of forest in the area.

Few days back, a leopard was spotted on the Aarey road, which created havoc amongst people forcing them to climb the nearest tree. After informing the forest department, they received in a safety van and darted tranquilizer thrice on the leopard. While checking the leopard, it was discovered that the leopard had a wound on her leg enabling her to climb the tree.

Ashraf Khan, a witness of the incident said,” As soon as we saw the leopard heading towards us, everybody climbed the tree. after climbing, I immediately called my uncle who frequently uses the road for jogging who informed the forest department to take action.”

It is questionable enough on how did the leopard get hurt? Where N V Rathod, Chief Executive Officer of Aarey Milk Colony stated in an interview that “Even though the fire spread, no animals were harmed nor have we received any complaint regarding it.”

Interestingly, Rathod also mentioned that “Aarey was never shown as a forest in our records. It’s not part of the forest. The government had established Aarey Milk Colony to provide people good quality, fresh milk. The purpose of Aarey was to bring all tabelas spread across the city in one place and they were given licence to produce milk and sell it. Aarey’s green space will not be disturbed.”

According to a report, there are 8-9 active adult leopard present in the forest. “We have an association with NGOs working for the wildlife and forest department. Whenever we see extreme leopard activity at a particular location or if there is an attack we contact these people and they set up cages to capture it. We help NGO researchers and forest staff with all basic facilities to track leopard activity. Earlier, we have taken help from the forest department and met residents of the main tribal hamlets to improve awareness about leopard activities.

Various question arise after this incident- Has any department conducted survey? How often do they conduct survey? If it is not included in the forest, then how do they operate? What precautions are guided for residents around?