Leopard roams streets of Mumbai suburb, residents panic
Two to three leopard spottings in the Goregaon East area of Mumbai have caused panic among residents who are used to seeing the beast but have got scared of late because of stray incidents of attacks on humans.
Three videos of the wild cat at different locations are circulating on social media, alerting the forest department.
A CCTV grab shows a radio-collared leopard strolling in the Gokuldham housing society before settling down at a place. After some time, it gets up and walks towards a blind spot.
The forest department has identified the leopard as C33-Delta. Forest officials assured the locals that there is no need to panic and that they will patrol the area besides running awareness campaigns.
#leopard spotted in the CCTV footage of Gokuldham area in Goregaon East has been identified by the forest dept. The radio collar tht is clearly visible in this video was fitted in Nov last year. The occasional sightings of leopards is common in this neighborhood.@RoadsOfMumbai pic.twitter.com/BDb59DFU4q
— Virat A Singh (@tweetsvirat) January 17, 2022
Goregaon East is located close to Aarey Milk Colony, which surrounds the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). Leopard spotting is common in Aarey. Leopards often visit these human habitats in search of easy preys like street dogs. At any given time, there are about four to five adult wild cats, including a transient population that moves between Aarey and SGNP.
In September last year, the forest officials had captured C-33 Delta from Aarey after several attacks on humans. The leopard had attacked an elderly woman in the Aarey Colony. She fought it off with a stick. A few days back, a teenaged boy too was attacked by the wild cat. The boy was walking home alone when the animal pounced on him. C-33 Delta escaped when the boy screamed for help and the neighbours came rushing. The forest department then radio-collared C-33 Delta and released in the wild.
Yet another video shows a leopard passing across a gated building. Â A third video shows the animal walking by a parking lot.
Flanked by Aarey colony, Film City these areas in Goregaon East are know to witness leopard movement often caught on CCTV cameras of bldgs. Leopards often come to these areas looking for quick and easy food in form of stray dogs. pic.twitter.com/dvguhMMYjd
— Virat A Singh (@tweetsvirat) January 17, 2022
Seeing leopards is not uncommon for people living in and around Aarey Colony. Spread across 3,166 acres, the green patch has a population of about 50,000 with 28 tribal hamlets and slum pockets.
The residents of Aarey Colony rarely step out of their houses after dark. If necessary, they move with flashlights and bamboo sticks. Some residents of Ekta Nagar collected money to install CCTV cameras and keep an eye on the movement of wild cats. Some also keep hunter dogs to keep the leopard at bay. At times, the stray dogs too take on leopards to protect themselves.
The number of leopard-human conflicts in Maharashtra has been on the rise. In 2019, 110 leopards lost their lives in the state; the number rose to 172 the next year. According to the forest department, in 2020, 86 leopard deaths were natural, 34 road/rail hits, 25 due to drowning, 17 because of poaching and three for other reasons. The deaths due to road hit, poaching and drowning have almost doubled in a span of one year.
