Environmentalists have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene after a leopard was shot dead in Pune district on Wednesday night, calling the incident a “deeper governance failure” in Maharashtra’s land-use planning and wildlife management.
In a detailed representation submitted through the PMO Public Grievance portal and a Change.org petition titled “Environment or Nothing”, the NatConnect Foundation urged the Centre to ensure that Maharashtra adopts a science-based, humane strategy to manage human–wildlife conflict.
“Protecting human lives is essential. But the solution lies in fixing the landscape not eliminating wildlife pushed into disturbed spaces,” the Foundation said in its appeal, warning that such reactive measures only destabilise ecosystems and lead to repeated conflict.
NatConnect director B N Kumar, who filed the appeal, said the killing of the leopard in Shirur tehsil of Pune district reflects the growing disconnect between urban expansion and ecological planning. “Forests are shrinking, and new settlements are expanding into traditional wildlife movement zones without ecological assessment. Unmanaged garbage and growing stray dog and monkey populations near forest fringes have created an artificial prey chain that attracts leopards to human habitations,” he said.
Kumar stressed that killing the animal does not resolve the problem. “It only creates a vacuum that is soon filled by another, often younger and more stressed leopard. This increases, not decreases, the risk of conflict,” he said.
The plea also cited studies from Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Uttarakhand showing that relocated leopards often travel long distances to return to familiar terrain, increasing risks along the way. Referring to India’s experience with the cheetah translocation project in Kuno, Kumar added: “Ecosystems cannot be re-engineered by administrative decisions alone. Landscape continuity and ecological balance take time.”
Meanwhile, forest officials confirmed that the leopard, which had been labelled a “man-eater” after several attacks in the Shirur tehsil over the past month, was killed by sharpshooters on Tuesday night. The operation near Pimparkhed village was launched after trackers found fresh pugmarks of the elusive feline. Officials said they first attempted to tranquillise the animal before it was shot dead.
Environmental advocate Jyoti Nadkarni said the leopard is an integral part of the ecosystem, and its removal could trigger unforeseen ecological consequences. “The leopard plays an essential role in maintaining balance within the food chain. Removing it disturbs a far more complex ecological web than we acknowledge,” she said.
In its petition, NatConnect has urged the government to protect and restore wildlife corridors, regulate unplanned development near forest edges, improve waste management, control stray populations humanely, ensure timely compensation for affected families, and deploy trained rapid-response teams for conflict management.
“The Pune incident must be treated as a wake-up call to address root causes not repeated as policy,” the Foundation said.
The petition, which is gaining momentum on Change.org, calls for both central and state-level action to create a sustainable framework for human wildlife coexistence based on science, compassion, and ecological integrity.
