Imagine that you are walking through one of the vast sugarcane fields of Maharashtra. Suddenly, you hear soft squeaks within the tall grass. You approach the sound to find two small kittens… but wait! These animals seem different, with bodies covered with spots. It sinks in finally – you are looking at young leopard cubs!

While seeming sensational, encounters like this have become a lived reality for villagers in Maharashtra. Two leopard rescue operations took place earlier this year, and both highlight how the act of mitigating interspecies conflict is a collaborative effort. In the first instance, a team from Wildlife SOS reunited a 45-day-old leopard cub with its mother after farmers discovered the young feline in the fields of Tejewadi Village in Pune. In a separate incident, a 15-year-old cub was found in Pune’s Junnar division.

If a mother and her cub remain apart for long, the likelihood of them reuniting diminishes. Therefore, timeliness was of key importance in both these rescue situations. Wildlife SOS organises regular workshops intended to educate and inform local communities about the correct course of action that needs to be taken in such situations. Therefore, local farmers who chanced upon the cub in Tejewadi knew exactly what to do.

They immediately contacted the forest department. Soon after, forest officials arrived with the cub at Wildlife SOS’s Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre (MLRC) in Junnar. 

An examination by our veterinary officer was conducted to rule out health issues, and the cub was identified as a female that was approximately 45 days old.

Reunions are expected to take place during the night since leopards are nocturnal in nature. Keeping this in mind, the Wildlife SOS team went back to the same spot where the cub was first spotted, and placed him there within a safe box. It was a moment of great relief for the team when the mother returned to find her cub there and took it away. This successful reunion was captured by the camera traps that were set up in the area.

The second rescue took place just a few days later, when farmers in Kailash Nagar village in Junnar stumbled upon a leopard cub. A team of forest officers along with a three-member team from Wildlife SOS made their way to help the cub. 

During the on-site health checkup, the tiny male cub was found to be merely 15 days old! To ensure that it is reunited with its mother as soon as possible, the team put the cub in a well-ventilated box lined with hay and grass. This box was then left where the cub was initially discovered. Maintaining a safe distance from this site is paramount for our team so that the mother leopard can approach her cub without any hesitation or fear.

In this instance as well, camera traps placed in the area caught the mother leopard approaching the location at night. She gently picked up her cub by the scruff of his neck and made her way to a more secure area.

In this instance as well, camera traps placed in the area caught the mother leopard approaching the location at night. She gently picked up her cub by the scruff of his neck and made her way to a more secure area.

In this instance as well, camera traps placed in the area caught the mother leopard approaching the location at night. She gently picked up her cub by the scruff of his neck and made her way to a more secure area.

The Importance of Reuniting Leopard Cubs with their Mothers 

Leopards are the smallest of the big cats found in India. Due to their size and highly adaptable nature, they become accustomed to a variety of habitations in close proximity to human settlements. However, such adaptability is a double-edged sword that has culminated in rising instances of human-animal conflict.

This conflict often emerges in the sugarcane fields of Maharashtra. Indian leopards were widespread across the forests of the state but now, their once wild surroundings are being invaded by vast fields of sugarcane.