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Maharashtra’s leopard problem — and the controversial solution that is raising alarm bells
Maharashtra is in the grip of a leopard crisis of its own making — one born not from failure, but from success. Over the past decade, the state’s leopard population has grown nearly fourfold. Tiger numbers have risen from around 101 to 444. Conservation, by the numbers, is working. But as the animals multiply and their habitats shrink under urban and agricultural pressure, the forests are running out of room — and the state is running out of ideas.
The most visible consequence of this is playing out in Pune district, where around 150 leopards had been trapped — many of them held at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre, a facility originally designed to hold 45 animals but housing 110. With nowhere left to put them, Maharashtra Forest Minister Ganesh Naik announced that the state had approached Reliance Foundation with a request: take our leopards. Twenty-five big cats have already been transferred to Vantara, the foundation’s sprawling wildlife facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with a signed agreement to eventually relocate 50 animals in total.
The move has triggered a fierce conservation debate. Critics argue that long-distance translocation of wild leopards to a captive facility — however well-resourced — is not wildlife management. It is, they say, an abdication of it. Prakriti Srivastava, former principal chief conservator of forests, Kerala, described the transfer as “a shocking capitulation” and warned it weakens India’s conservation regime. Conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Trust-India have urged the state to first study leopard population density and understand what is driving the animals into human settlements before reaching for a “fix” that may not address the root cause at all. “Scarcity of food is a supposed reason,” one expert noted, “but we need to understand if the leopards are coming closer to human settlements or the humans have moved closer to the wild.”
Vantara itself remains a deeply contested facility. A Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team cleared it of legal violations in September 2025, but international watchdog CITES has imposed a blanket ban on all wildlife imports to India following its own findings about the facility. The forest department insists the relocation to Vantara is temporary, with plans to bring the leopards back once more space becomes available within Maharashtra. Activists are sceptical.
Adding to the controversy, Maharashtra’s legislature also passed the Wildlife Protection (Maharashtra Amendment) Bill, 2026 — which empowers the state’s chief wildlife warden to make decisions on leopard translocation and “population management” without seeking central government approval each time. The government insists this is about reducing bureaucratic delays in conflict situations, not about opening the door to culling. Opposition leader Aaditya Thackeray called for the bill to go to a select committee, warning there is no scientific basis to suggest the proposed changes will improve outcomes, and that they risk increasing poaching pressure on a Schedule I species.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court is also watching. It has expressed concern over 298 tiger deaths in Maharashtra over 12 years and sought explanations from authorities — part of a broader judicial disquiet about whether conservation spending in the state is being managed well. Allegations have surfaced that over ₹40 crore earmarked for tiger conservation has been diverted to other purposes.
Maharashtra’s situation is a microcosm of a national tension: what does a state do when conservation succeeds faster than the infrastructure to support it? The leopard is thriving. The system that was supposed to protect it is overwhelmed. How India answers that question — through science, policy, or expediency — will matter for every state facing the same problem next.
This is a developing story. IWN will continue to follow it.
Sources: Scroll.in · The Print · National Herald India · Deccan Herald · Down to Earth
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