India, March 7 -- Faced with a logistical challenge in housing leopards captured during a massive human-leopard conflict mitigation drive, the forest department was recently forced to keep as many as 23 captured leopards in cages placed at various forest nurseries across Ahilyanagar. To address the lack of infrastructure, the department has now proposed setting up a dedicated facility capable of housing up to 200 leopards in captivity, if required. According to officials, the proposed facility will provide a structured and humane system for temporarily housing rescued or captured leopards and will significantly strengthen the department's ability to respond to conflict situations.

During recent human-leopard conflict mitigation drives, n...