Mumbai, March 13 -- The state government has initiated the process of moving leopards from schedule 1 to schedule 2 of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act to enable transfer of excess leopards to rescue centres and other states, forest minister Ganesh Naik told the legislative assembly on Thursday. Schedule I grants the highest level of legal protection to animals against hunting, poaching, and trade, while schedule 2 offers lesser protection. Naik, while responding to a calling attention motion in the assembly, said the decision to change the listing of leopards was taken during the cabinet meeting on Wednesday and the central government has already been requested to approve the shift. "We have been getting requests from other states for handing over to them excessive leopards we have. Such transfers need permission from the central forest department. We already have transferred 25 leopards to Vantara in Gujarat and 25 more will be shifted soon," Naik said. Forest department officials said the move was aimed at addressing growing incidents of human-leopard conflict in Pune, Nashik, Ahilyanagar and other districts. The change would enable quick transfer of problematic leopards without permission from the central government, the officials said....