Nagpur: Gorewada Rescue Centre, the only shelter for rescued wild animals in Maharashtra, currently has 27 tigers and 26 leopards. Of the carnivores, 21 were sent to the centre in the last 5 years, revealed the Forest Department.
The Forest Department, in reply to a RTI query by Abhay Kolarkar, stated that forest teams rescued 30 carnivores including tigers, leopards and sloth bears, from various forest areas of the State between 2019 and 2023. Of these, 17 tigers and 4 leopards were sent to Gorewada Rescue Centre Nagpur for treatment and care.
Currently, 27 tigers are at Gorewada Rescue Centre. Of the 27, the centre is planning to release two tigers into the wild. For this, a training session of the staff is on at Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR). Also, one more tiger will be released soon. The Gorewada Rescue Centre administration is planning to release only three tigers into the wild whereas 24 will be kept at the centre for the rest of their life.
Similar planning is done for the leopards also. The centre has 26 leopards and two sloth bears. They all shall remain at the centre for the rest of their life. The Gorewada Rescue Centre has 30 enclosures which are almost full with these carnivores. Most of the carnivores the Centre has are injured or are not capable of hunting in the wild. Therefore, they will remain here for the rest of their life. Under the animal exchange programme we can send them to other zoos in the country.
Vidarbha, which has the highest population of tigers in the State, witnesses man-animal conflict frequently. In the conflict with humans, many carnivores like tigers and leopards get injured. Forest teams rescue them and send them to Gorewada. In the last five years, 13 tigers and three leopards were rescued from Chandrapur division and most of them were sent to Gorewada Rescue Centre.
The centre has three tigers rescued from Nagpur division, three tigers and one leopard from Gadchiroli division, two tigers from Yavatmal division, two leopards from Thane division and a sloth bear from Amravati division were rescued in the last five years. Among these 30 carnivores, a leopard that was rescued from Chandrapur was later released in Compartment No 250 of Chandankhedi area of Allapalli forest range.
Another leopard which was rescued from Thane circle on November 3, 2021 was released in the wild after fixing a radio collar. The sloth bear rescued from Buldhana circle of Amravati division on October 29, 2021 was also released in its natural habitat the very next day. Apart from these three carnivores, not a single tiger has been released in its natural habitat so far in the last five years. Apart from Gorewada Rescue Centre, some rescued carnivores were shifted to Nagpur’s Maharajbagh Zoo, Transit Treatment Centre, and Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali in Mumbai.
