BHOPAL: Forest department teams in two separate parts of Madhya Pradesh are searching for a tiger and a leopardess.
In central Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district, forest department teams are making intensive efforts to locate and rescue a tiger whose movement inside the historic hilltop Raisen Fort has led to the closure of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected monument and a ban on tourist entry.
More than 400 km away in southwestern Madhya Pradesh's Barwani district, forest department personnel are searching for a mother leopard whose cub was found abandoned and dehydrated on June 8.
While efforts continue to trace the leopardess—who had reportedly given birth to three cubs but abandoned one, possibly due to its frail health—sudden health complications in the cub, including frequent seizures, have prompted veterinary experts to send its blood samples for testing to rule out Canine Distemper (CD), a potentially fatal viral infection. The cub is estimated to be around two months old.
Importantly, the same infection claimed the lives of a tigress and her four cubs, followed by a popular male tiger, in southeastern Madhya Pradesh in April and May.
“Since June 8, our teams have been searching for the mother leopard, who, according to villagers, was last seen on the same day with three cubs. One of the cubs was later found abandoned in an agricultural field and rescued by our team. Since then, multiple teams have been searching for the mother leopard to reunite the cub with her. Drone cameras have been deployed to search for the leopardess in an area spanning around six kilometres near the Narmada River, but the efforts have not yielded results. The cub was placed at the rescue site during the nights of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to facilitate a reunion with its biological mother, but the leopardess did not return during the three-night operation,” Divisional Forest Officer (Barwani Division) Ashish Bansod told TNIE.
As the cub has now begun showing symptoms, including frequent seizures, that resemble those associated with Canine Distemper, it has been shifted from the rescue site and placed under round-the-clock veterinary care and monitoring. Its blood samples have been sent to the School of Wildlife Forensic and Health in Jabalpur to determine whether it is infected with the virus.
Meanwhile, field staff continue to search the area for the mother leopard and the remaining cubs.
More than 400 km away in Raisen district, the historic ASI-protected Raisen Fort, a popular tourist attraction, has remained out of bounds for visitors for the past 15 days.
“It was the ASI staff who first informed us about spotting a tiger inside the fort premises, after which our team also found pugmarks. Camera traps were subsequently installed in the fort complex and recently captured images of the tiger near a pond close to the Someshwar Mahadev Temple. Since then, barricades, banners and warning posters have been put up to prevent people from venturing into the hilltop fort area, particularly morning and evening walkers. Our teams are maintaining continuous surveillance inside the fort premises and in the adjoining areas,” a senior forest department official in Raisen district told TNIE.
