Overview
- India’s environment ministry cleared Maharashtra’s plan to trial immuno‑contraception in Junnar, with an initial phase treating five female leopards under expert supervision at the Manikdoh rescue centre.
- The state is scaling emergency measures with AI alert cameras, drone surveillance, expanded rapid‑response teams and a push to raise cage capacity to about 1,000 across high‑risk zones.
- Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed proposals to declare the crisis a state disaster and to seek moving leopards from Schedule I to Schedule II, and ordered two new rescue centres in Pune with boosted patrols and drone use.
- Following two recent fatalities, authorities shot a declared man‑eater in Ahilyanagar and issued a second shoot‑at‑sight order after a new attack on a child, with capture operations continuing.
- Immediate public‑safety steps include shifting school hours so students travel in daylight, while officials address animal‑welfare objections to baiting even as they test goat placement to deter straying into villages.