CHENNAI: Three months back, when an abandoned jungle cat that was about five-days-old, and weighing just 128g, was rescued from Thiruporur and transported to Chennai, it hadn’t even opened its eyes and chances of survival were minimal. After being hand reared and nurtured for the past few months, the animal is healthy, physically active and weighs 1.9kg with all of its wild instincts intact.
Forest officials told TNIE that the information about the abandoned newly born jungle cat was received on January 14 from a few people belonging to the Irula tribe in Thiruporur. Locals said that there were poachers lurking in the area and the mother may have been either killed or it abandoned the kitten due to threat perception. Jungle cats and civet cats are poached for their meat.
“We waited for some time to see whether the mother would come to take the kitten. Time was running out since the kitten was hardly a few days old and would not survive without the mother’s milk. So, a decision was taken to shift it to Besant Memorial Animal Dispensary in Chennai for intensive care as the Guindy Children’s Park was undergoing renovation and a lot of construction was happening,” a forest official said.
Shravan Krishnan, managing director of Besant Memorial Animal Dispensary, said the kitten was too young for it to consume regular milk. “So, we had to import Kitten Milk Replacer, which is equivalent to mother’s milk, from the United States. The cat responded well and showed signs of improvement in 7-10 days. Slowly, we started giving cat’s food, releasing rats etc. for it to hunt.”
Chennai wildlife warden Manish Meena told TNIE that the jungle cat was moved into a special enclosure at the Guindy Children’s Park. “So far, it is doing fine. In the next few months, we will try to acclimatise the animal to a near natural environment by feeding it with food and water available at the Guindy National Park. Eventually, it will be soft released in the forest area of the park where there is already a local population of jungle cats.”