Overview
- Sharpshooter Dr Rajeev Shinde shot a five- to six-year-old male leopard at 9:45 pm after it charged a search team near a Kopargaon poultry farm, with the carcass sent for post-mortem at Baragaon Nandur nursery.
- Officials said the animal had been declared a man-eater linked to the November 5 and 10 fatalities, following an initial trapping permission on November 7 and a lethal authorisation on November 10 by chief wildlife warden MS Reddy.
- A second shoot-at-sight order was issued on November 16 after a separate attack injured seven-year-old Rajveer Kotkar in Khare Karjune, with capture operations ongoing, according to deputy conservator Dharmvir Salvithhal.
- The multi-agency operation used rescue teams from Nashik and Pune, camera traps, pugmark tracking and thermal drones to locate the cat across the Yeshgaon–Takli belt.
- The government announced 1,000 cages in Junnar, AI alert cameras at one-kilometre intervals, drones and vehicles for rapid response, Rs 11 crore in emergency funding, volunteer mobilisation, daytime power supply for farmers, sterilisation approval in Junnar and planned relocations to Vantara within 10–12 days.