Canine companion saves ex-cricketer Guy Whittal from wounded leopard

Guy Whittal, the handsome and aggressive Zimbabwean middle-order batsman, nippy medium pace bowler and sharp fielder who played 46 Tests and 147 One-Day Internationals for his country between 1993 and 2003, has survived a leopard attack and is recuperating at Milton Parks Hospital in the capital Harare after undergoing emergency surgery, news reports said. Whittal, who runs his family’s game safari in the southeast of Zimbabwe, was reported to have been tracking the leopard, which...

Leopard attacks forest official during capture mission in Kashmir

Jammu & Kashmir was in the news once again last week, this time for a viral video of a leopard attacking a man during a farcical attempt to capture the animal. News reports said the leopard entered Fatehpura village in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir and injured two women and a man. Fearing for their safety, locals alerted the authorities. So far so good. What wasn’t good was what followed, as some uniformed men, supposedly...

Keep calm, it’s just a leopard! 12-year-old’s exemplary presence of mind

In a situation that would have given even most adults jitters, a 12-year-old boy displayed exemplary courage and presence of mind. The boy was playing a game on a mobile phone at the office of Sai Celebration wedding hall along the Malegaon-Nampur Road in Nasik district of Maharashtra. A leopard simply strolled into the office, but what happened next was unusual. The boy, whose father is a security guard at the venue, kept his cool...

India set to be headquarters of International Big Cat Alliance

In a landmark decision to help conserve lions, tigers, leopards, etc, the Union cabinet has given the green signal for the formation of the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA), a worldwide network to help big cats flourish. The IBCA will have its headquarters in India. It will be a multi-country, multi-agency coalition of 96 big cat range countries to provide a one-stop platform on conservation. Interestingly, India’s natural habitat is home to five out of...

Spotted! India now has nearly 14,000 leopards

It is not just India’s gross domestic product that has seen a remarkable recovery in recent months, posting growth of 8.4 per cent in the third quarter of financial year 2023-24. The country’s declining leopard population has also seen an upward trajectory of a just-as-impressive 8 per cent. According to a recent report released by the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change, India is now home to 13,874 leopards. Back in 2018, the...