BENGALURU: Even as the leopard at the Infosys campus in Mysuru remains elusive, forest department officials have warned that in the coming times there will be shortage of space to house all the captured leopards.
To address this, forest department has asked the urban development departments and city corporations to involve them while planning and sanctioning layouts, commercial and residential spaces in the coming times.
“The pace at which we are capturing and housing leopards, in the next 2-3 years there will be no space to house any more. Furthermore, space for humans and animals will become a matter of concern,” said a senior forest department official, not wanting to be named.
According to forest department records, in the last two years, 16 leopard cubs have been handed over by farmers from sugarcane fields alone. That is not all, every month at least three leopard are rescued from each district.
Bannerghatta Leopard Rescue Centre, Karnataka’s dedicated centre also the state’s largest houses 80 leopards. The tiger rescue centre in Mysuru, also houses nine leopards. The state government is also setting up mobile emergency leopard shelters in Shivamogga and Belagavi.
“Presently we are working on catch and release method, ensuring there is minimal or no human imprint. But if the leopard is injured, also if the political and citizen pressure is too high, the leopard is held back in the rescue centre. Their number in rescue centres is rising and space is becoming a problem.
We are thus asking urban development, city corporations and district administrations to make forest department a part of the urban planning committee, while sanctioning infrastructure, housing and commercial projects or while expanding cities to the outskirts,” the official said, adding that leopards are found in outskirts of all cities and not just Bengaluru.