Plastic waste has already been creating lots of issues for marine life for years, it seems that now even the wildlife in the forests is also no longer immune to this pollutant. Recently, In a challenging search and rescue operation, a leopard was relieved of the painful plight after about 48 hours after its head was stuck in a plastic water container in Thane district of Maharashtra. A team of over 30 people – from animal welfare groups to forest officials, from local administration to villagers were involved in this operation. Due to this ordeal, the Leopard got severely exhausted and it could neither breathe properly nor eat or drink for almost two days.
The leopard was first spotted by a passerby near Badlapur village in the Thane district around 7 in the morning with its head stuck in the plastic water can on Sunday night, a forest department official said on Wednesday. He is currently undergoing treatment for further care and is being shifted to the rescue centre before it can be sent back to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).
According to a video taken by the passengers, it can be seen that the leopard is trying hard to free his head. But before the rescuers could reach the spot, the distressed animal went to the surrounding forest area. Following this, Forest Department officials, the SGNP and NGO Racekink Association for Representatives from Wildlife Welfare (RAW) and other groups launched the rescue operation.
In this rescue operation, a ground team patrolled the area, the volunteers also took the help of the villagers.
According to the RAW founder, Pawan Sharma said “This is a huge area connecting cities and towns -Kalyan, Badlapur and Murbad. The hardest part was finding the animal in this area. Leopard Will be monitored for the next 24 to 48 hours before being released into the wild. ”
Rescuers have stated that the biggest challenge during this operation was to ensure that the leopard stays away from human settlements. According to experts, in such search and rescue operations, the standard practice of chemical stabilization or tranquilization is used. However, even during this process, the rescue team tries to keep the animal away from the human settlement because anaesthesia takes time and an independent animal like a leopard instinctively Often runs away.
The officials have estimated that the leopard found in Badlapur must be using the plastic can to drink water and in the process, his head would have got stuck. Nilesh Bhange from the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) said “All the ground staff, villagers as well as volunteers, to see the animal We have been patrolling day and night for the last two days, but we did not find any clues. Of lack of water, The reason is that the animal was severely dehydrated (in case of death due to lack of water).”
Experts also said that such an incident hints at the major crisis animals are going through. “Plastic waste has become a major problem in urban as well as rural and forest areas. These Wild animals are becoming a threat. Either plastic waste is brought in by strong winds Or is thrown indiscriminately on roads, railway corridors, etc and stated that Milind Parivakam said that the data on roadkills (wild animals killed on roads or railway tracks in India an initiative of the Wildlife Conservation Trust).
