Rescue base camp in Shirur after minor’s death in leopard attack

Pune: The Junnar forest division will install a rescue base camp with over 15 professionals for day and night patrolling at Mandavgaon Pharata, a village in Shirur, where a four-year-old boy died in a leopard attack on Friday.The department has faced backlash for delaying its response time in conflict scenarios, along with failure to mitigate the conflict situation in Shirur.According to the department, the response time after the attack was slow due to the village's distance from other base camps.Smita Rajhans, assistant conservator of forests, Junnar division, told TOI, "The team would travel 100km from the Junnar division office. Now, have deployed a team and set up 26 trap cages and 10 trap cameras in the village. We are also conducting day and night patrolling in the area. The cages, which are shifted from our base camp in Pimparkhed village, are also about 65km away from the Mandavgan Pharata, which requires more time to mobilise and set up the system in the conflict area."This has marked the eighth human death in a leopard attack in Junnar since March this year. The village also observed another attack last month when a seven-year-old boy was killed when he was outside his home.Recently, there was a spike in attacks in the region owing to the relocation of several sub-adult leopards in search of new territories due to the occupation of the sugar cane belt by adult leopards.Rajhans suggested that the conflict situation has now spread farther than just Junnar, with sightings also observed by local villagers in Daund.
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