This leopard cub is one of the two, rescued by Mettikuppe Range Forest Officer Vasudev Murthy in 2009. Mettikuppe range is part of Nagarahole National Park. In the month of April 2010 these cubs named as Rinku and Pinku were handed over to Vishalakshi Devi, sister of Maharaja Wodeyar, who is an expert in rehabilitating abandoned leopard cubs. Myself along with our group of volunteers have seen these cubs grow under the care of Mettikuppe range forest department staff.
Most of the leopards generally leave there cubs in the sugar cane fields or other safe places and go for hunting. Villagers passing through these areas or owners of the fields think that cubs have been abandoned and hence bring them to forest officials.
Leopards are increasingly being killed by people because of loss of their live stock as food to these big cats. It is natural that we as human beings do not want to loose our live stock or any other kind of assets. But do we ever put our selves into wild animal’s shoes and think of their life without their share of natural sources of food and shelter?
Please create awareness amongst the villagers and inform them to contact forest officials to act against incidents of leopards entering their territory in search of food. This way being a city dweller you help conserve wildlife.
Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Viewpoint by Prashant G Y is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 India License.
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