BENGALURU: It is not just just the increasing cases of man- leopard conflict that is worrying the forest department, but also the increasing incidents of capture and the rising population of the big cat at the rescue centre.
To control their numbers in captivity, zoo and forest department officials are contemplating vasectomising rescued and captured male leopards housed at the Bannerghatta Biological Park Rescue Centre.
It is the only leopard rescue centre in the state and houses around 70 rescued leopards, some as young as a month-old.
“Whenever a leopard is rescued, captured or found ailing, it is brought to the Centre for treatment and shelter. As we cannot stop them from coming in, we want to reduce their breeding for some time. First, we want to sterilise the males temporarily, as it is surgically easier to deal with the male population. The proposal was discussed at the health advisory meeting and it will be taken up with the heads of the zoo authority and the forest department. It will be sent later to the central government for approval,” said a senior official from the rescue centre.
Earlier, the forest department, experts and veterinarians had proposed similar birth control measures for elephants that were being translocated, or in regular conflict with humans or staying in estates and other human habitats.
But the proposal did not move forward, as more perspective from the scientific community was needed and also the department did not have sufficient data on the number of elephants and their migration and conflict patterns. How to identify the target elephants was also not finalised and the proposal was shelved.
“If vasectomy for rescued and sheltered leopards is approved, it will be the first in India. It is not new and is being done in other countries, where the procedure is performed on males. We are trying to address the problem with a three-fold approach - one, when a leopard is brought to the centre with zero human imprinting, attend to it and release it back into the wild; second, treat and release it to into the wild with minimum human interference and third is when the animal stays back at the rescue centre after medical intervention. It is at the third stage that vasectomy is being planned,” the official said, adding this will not have an impact on the big cats in the wild or those in the zoo