Mumbai: It is often said that the bonding between a mother and her child is not limited to humans only. This proved to be true once again in a heartwarming incident when a leopard cub was reunited with its mother with the help of a group of kind-hearted Forest Department officials.
Forest Department officials said that security personnel on October 10 upon hearing continuous barking by dogs near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. After a brief search, they found a small leopard cub hiding in a corner near the boundary wall of the national park.
They handed over the cub to the Forest Department from where it was sent to the SNGP Veterinary Hospital for medical assessment. Forest Department officials said that on October 11, they tried to reunite the cub with its mother.
The cub was put inside a cage the door of which could be opened from a distance by pulling a rope tied to the handle. But nothing happened that night. Determined to reunite the cub with its mother the Forest Department officials made the same arrangement the next day and set up camera traps near the cage. They kept vigil from a distance.
Then at around 4.45 am, they saw the familiar figure of a leopard approaching the cage. Seeing the cub's reaction, the Forest Department officials were convinced that it was the mother. They slowly opened the cage door and the cub sprinted to its mother and clung to her in affection. Soon the mother and child disappeared into the forest.
Interestingly, it was same leopard named C33-Delta the Forest officials captured one year ago mistakenly thinking that it was behind the series of leopard attacks on humans. However, the officials were a bit surprised as the female leopard usually avoided humans.
Their suspicion came true when the leopard attacks continued even after the big cat was caught. Realizing their mistake they released it back into the forest after tying a radio collar to its neck for tracking. The attacks stopped after another more female leopard called C32 was trapped by Forest officials.
