Mumbai: Leopard cub found dead at Goregaon Film City

A leopard cub was found dead inside the premises of a set in film city, Goregaon. The carcass of the cub was sent to Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) for post-mortem. The SGNP and the forest department are investigating the matter.

According to the forest department, at around 10.30 am on Sunday, the security guard of film city, informed the forest department regarding a dead leopard cub found inside one of the sets on the premises. After receiving the information, the rescue team of the forest department reached the location and searched the entire area for any more cubs or any clues related to the dead animal.

Regarding the incident, senior inspector, Shekar Donne, Aarey police, said, “The leopard did not have any prominent injury marks or bleeding, it could’ve eaten something wrong, or fell from a height with internal bleeding, there could be many suspicions for the death of the cub which was around 6-7 months old. The body was sent for post-mortem at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SNGP), after which the cause of death became clear.”

According to Dr Pethe from SNGP, the cause of death of the animal was given as, “Respiratory Distress resulting to weakness and head trauma with subcutaneous bleeding as a probable cause of death.”

“However the probe is on and a visceral sample of the cub will be sent for further investigation,” said a Forest Department Official, Girija Desai.

Regarding the probable reason for the leopard cub to be around film city, Pawan Sharma, founder of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), said, “Film city is a home range to the leopards and has a movement of both Aarey and SGNP leopards. Sightings are not common but the movement of the leopards is very common in that location which has also been sighted with camera trap data showing the regular movement of the leopards in the area.”