The Maharashtra Forest Department will radio-collar female leopard C33 and release back into the wild in the next few days. Nearly two-year-old female leopard C33 was trapped in a cage set up at Aarey Milk Colony.
Bilal Habib, a senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Dr. Vidya Athreya from Wildlife Conservation Society of India will be providing radio collar. They have already radio-collared two leopards in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).
“The post-calling of Leopard C33 will be monitored," said Sunil Limaye, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) - Wildlife.
The female leopard C33 is the sibling of leopard C32, who is responsible for the recent human-animal conflicts in Aarey Milk Colony in which nine people were injured in the past two months. Owing to this, nine people have been injured in the last two months.
Forest Department sources told Mid-Day that the radio collar would soon reach Mumbai from Junnar in Ahmednagar district.
Limaye said, "The plan is to release the leopard into its natural habitat with a radio collar. Researchers will not just monitor its movement using the radio collar but camera traps will also be installed surrounding the area where it will be released.”
On October 1, a C33 female leopard was captured at Aarey Milk Colony. She has since been caged at SGNP.
For those unaware, a radio collar is a wide band of machine-belting fitted with a small radio transmitter and battery. The transmitter emits a signal at a specific frequency that can be tracked from up to 5 kms away.
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