Delay in submission of leopard sterilization draft: Amol Kolhe
unnar tehsil in Pune was selected as the project site, and the forest officials along with veterinary experts prepared a draft for leopard sterilization project
Despite receiving the leopard sterilization draft from the local authority, in December 2023, the state forest department hasn’t submitted it to the central government yet.
“While the leopard conflict incidents are increasing day by day in Maharashtra, and delay of draft from state, will again impact the further procedure for sterilization project and ultimately on the conflict management,” said MP Amol Kolhe who has written about the issue to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on March 12.
Considering the rising human-leopard conflict in the state, Sudheer Munguntiwar, Maharashtra forest minister, in August 2023 has announced that, the state forest department is planning the leopard sterilization project in Maharashtra on a pilot basis.
Junnar tehsil in Pune was selected as the project site, and the forest officials along with veterinary experts prepared a draft for leopard sterilization project.
Accordingly, the project draft has been prepared by the Junnar forest office and It was submitted to the state forest department in Nagpur.
Kolhe met with Bhupendra Yadav, Union forest minister and requested him to consider the leopard sterilization project as the conflict situation has become vulnerable in Junnar area. Upon which the union minister assured him about the same. However in his recent communication with the central ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), he learned that there is no draft received either from Maharashtra forest department or the state government for the project.
Maheep Gupta, principal chief conservator of forest, Nagpur, did not respond to calls and messages.
As per data given in the letter, in 2022-2023 at least 17 incidents of leopard attacks were reported in Junnar, Shirur, Khed and Ambegaon tehsils. In this a total of 5 people lost their lives and 12 were injured.
In 2023-2024 till now, 13 attacks were reported in which 3 people died and 10 have been injured. Apart from this, loss of livestock, crop damage was also reported in some incidents.
