Jaipur on High Alert: Officials Plan Radio Collars to Track Rogue Leopards

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In a bid to prevent leopards from Jhalana Leopard Reserve from straying into densely populated areas of Jaipur, the Rajasthan forest department is considering a unique solution. Officials are weighing the option of fitting radio collars on leopards, allowing them to track the big cats in real-time and develop a more effective strategy to prevent their movement into residential areas. According to chief wildlife warden Arun Prasad, the proposal is part of a pilot project for a structured wildlife management plan across Rajasthan. The radio collars, which will be lighter than those used for tigers, will be attached to two to three leopards within the next one to two weeks. The use of radio collars is not new. Similar devices have been successfully used to track leopards in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The GPS tracker, a key feature of the radio collar, will enable forest officials to analyze the movement and dispersion pattern of the leopards, helping them predict their future movements. The latest incident of a leopard straying into the city occurred on Tuesday, when a leopard was caught from Jaipur's Malviya National Institute of Technology after it was spotted in the Bajaj Nagar area three days earlier. This is not an isolated incident, as leopards have repeatedly strayed from the Jhalana Leopard Reserve, which is home to at least 40 leopards, including into high-security areas like Civil Lines, where the residences of the chief minister, governor, and ministers are located. With the radio collar plan in the works, the Rajasthan forest department is taking steps to protect both humans and leopards living in close proximity in Jaipur.