Maharashtra Minister Suggests Releasing Goats in Forest to Prevent Leopards From Attacking Humans

New Delhi: In response to a calling attention motion raised by the opposition Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP), state forest minister Ganesh Naik on Tuesday (December 9) said that he has suggested forest officials to release large number of goats in forests to ensure that leopards don’t enter human settlements in search of food.

“The State has to pay Rs. 1 crore compensation if four people lose their lives in the leopard attack. Let’s assume four people are killed, and that compensation money could be used to release the goats worth Rs 1 crore into the forest. As leopards will get enough food in the forest, they might not venture into human settlements,” said Naik, reported The Hindu.

Earlier, NCP (SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad, who had raised the calling attention motion said that the state is witnessing an “alarming” increase in leopard attacks.

In recent times, leopard attacks have increased in areas including Pune, Ahilyanagar and Junnar, with the Maharashtra government saying that around 1,300 leopards are present in Pune and Ahilyanagar districts.

Earlier, the state government had sent a proposal to the Union government to categorise the leopard as a Schedule-II animal and grant permission for sterilisation.

“Such a proposal hardly gets accepted, and as a person who was part of the committee on wildlife issues, I can say the government will not approve of shifting leopards to Schedule-II,” said Congress MLA Nana Patole.

Junnar MLA Sharad Sonawane said that 55 people have died so far in leopard attacks.

“The Centre has given permission to sterilise only five animals on an experimental basis and wait for three years for impact. However, the State has decided to take up the issue again after experimenting for six months,” said Naik, who, just days back had said that “human-eater leopard to be shot at sight”, reported The Hindu.

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