Malsi Deer Park finally gets a leopard couple

Sun, May 18 12:45 AM

The long wait for a mate is over for Rani, a 5-year-old female leopard, at Malsi Deer Park. Soon, she would share the company of Raja, a 6-year old leopard, who survived some near fatal injuries.

The plight of Rani, who had been abandoned as a cub and rescued by forest officials over four years ago, seems to have ended with Raja being shifted to the park on Saturday after 40 days of intensive treatment. On April 6 this year, the severely injured male leopard was found by local residents near the Dehradun Institute of Technology (DIT) campus.

It had sustained injuries on its neck and was barely breathing. "The animal had either fallen into a trap laid by poachers or was trapped in a barbed fence.

Almost 60 per cent of ligaments on its neck were cut, but it was alive because its food and wind pipes were intact," said A.K. Banerjee, DFO (Mussoorie). After treating him at Raipur for three days with help of local veterinarians, forest officials and Wildlife Institute of India experts, the leopard was shifted to Pantnagar for a complete check up and better treatment.

"It was found that the animal had two fissures on head and its haemoglobin and blood urea levels were very low. Soon, a treatment plan was devised by a team of three experts and the leopard shifted to ICU," he said.

By this time, forest officials accompanying the injured animal had got emotionally attached to it and named it Raja. They spent 40 days attending to the leopard.

"It has now recovered almost 75 per cent and we shifted him to Malsi Deer Park. It would take nearly a month for its wounds to heal completely.

Till then he will be kept here," said Banerjee. As forest officials were already aware of Rani's loneliness, they have decided to allot Raja an enclosure near that of Rani after he gets well.

They are also hoping that both the animals would start liking each other and decide to start a family. "If they prove to be a good pair and fall in love, we will keep them here.

But if that doesn't happen, we will take care of Raja for 4-5 months till he is able to hunt on his own and release him in the wild," he said.

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