Mumbai, March 24 Maharashtra's Forest Minister Ganesh Naik has said that the state government has asked Reliance Foundation to accommodate leopards at its Vantara facility in Gujarat's Jamnagar, and 25 big cats have already been relocated there.
The population of leopards has risen four times in 10 years. The state, which had 101 tigers seven-eight years back, now has 444, Naik said in the legislative council on Monday while speaking on the amendment of the Wildlife Protection Act as applied to Maharashtra.
The amendment bill was passed by the assembly last week and cleared by the council on Monday.
"Twenty-five leopards have been sent to Vantara. We made a demand (to take the leopards) because 150 leopards were trapped in Pune district," Naik said. The state government has signed an agreement to translocate 50 leopards to Vantara.
The Wildlife Protection Act amendment has been brought because the chief wildlife warden, in cases of human-leopard conflict, cannot take steps for population management or translocation of big cats under section 12 without permission from the Union government.
This highly regulated, cumbersome process is time-consuming and delays effective scientific management and translocation of leopards, as well as efforts to deal with human-leopard conflict in the state, Naik said.
The bill will enable the chief wildlife warden to take necessary steps for the scientific management of leopards, including translocation and population management, with the permission of the state government.
Naik said the forest department will have a leopard and tiger safari in every district in the state.
There is a misunderstanding due to an amendment to the bill, and asserted that no permission will be given to anyone to kill leopards.