Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A controversy broke out over the gender of the rescued leopard that had gone missing from a cage and later was found in Navratanbagh locality of the city five days after its disappearance.
The Burhanpur forest department in its report mentioned that it was a female, but it turned out to be a male leopard when it was rescued in Indore Tuesday.
The gender confusion raised more questions on the forest department and a possibility of the leopard being different from the rescued leopard.
The chief conservator of forest (CCF) HS Mohanta, however, said it was the fault of the doctor who mistakenly mentioned it as female.
“Till the age of 1.5 years in wildcats, it is very difficult to identify their sex, because the testicles do not descend. The doctor who prepared the report should have mentioned it as unknown or unidentified in the gender column,” Mohanta said.
Every leopard has a unique pattern of spots, which is genetic and changes with every offspring, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Burhanpur Pradeep Mishra said.
“The leopard found in Indore is the same leopard that was rescued from Nepanagar. We have matched the pattern already at our end,” Mishra said.
Mishra added that it is very difficult to examine a wildcat when any animal is rescued, as they are usually at a high temper. “We cannot dare to touch and identify the sex at that time,” he said.
The doctor Neelam Morey, who had examined the leopard in Burhanpur claimed that gender of the leopard was mentioned Panchnama as per the communication with a forest official.
