Centre clears leopard sterilisation plan in Maharashtra; project to start in Pune district
Pune (PTI): Amid growing concerns over leopard sightings and attacks on humans, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has given nod to a Maharashtra government proposal seeking birth control of leopards in the state, officials said on Monday.
According to the forest department officials, approval to carry out sterilisation-based leopard population management programme has been granted on an experimental basis and the project will start in Pune's Junnar forest division.
"A proposal of the sterilisation-based population management programme was submitted to the Centre for 125 leopardesses last year. We have now got the approval to carry out the first-ever sterilisation-based leopard population management programme on an experimental basis on five leopardesses," said a senior forest department official.
A team of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) researchers, who have extensively monitored behaviour, population trends and conflict incidents involving the big cats in the Junnar forest division, had earlier suggested launching a controlled sterilisation initiative to curb the surge in leopard numbers, he stated.
"Following a detailed review of the proposal and comprehensive discussions with WII scientists, the ministry (MoEFCC) granted its approval. Their scientific evaluation was instrumental in finalising the plan for Junnar," the official noted.
Explaining the procedure of sterilisation, he said that immuno-contraception technique will be adopted for managing leopard population growth.
"Leopardesses will be captured and immuno-contraceptive will be injected to make them infertile," the official explained.
In over a month, three people have lost their lives in leopard attacks in Pune district's Shirur tehsil, which comes under the Junnar forest division. The spate of leopard attacks has sparked anger among people who recently torched a vehicle belonging to the forest department.
A "man-eater" leopard was killed by sharpshooters in Shirur tehsil in the first week of November.
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Centre's conspiracy to change federal structure defeated; victory of oppn unity: Priyanka
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday accused the Centre of conspiring to change the federal structure of the country in the garb of women's reservation, asserting that the defeat of its bill in the Lok Sabha to amend the women’s quota law was a victory for the Constitution as well as opposition unity.
She also demanded that the government implement the Women's Reservation Act of 2023 on the current strength of the Lok Sabha.
“What happened yesterday was a big win for democracy. The conspiracy to change the federal structure (of the country) was defeated. It was a victory for the Constitution, opposition unity, and the country,” the Congress general secretary said at a press conference.
“When Home Minister Amit Shah was speaking in the Lok Sabha on Friday, he said the Congress will not be able to sit on the treasury benches for years, which shows their mindset,” Priyanka said.
"The whole conspiracy was to stay in power. They thought that if delimitation is not done now, it would not be done before 2029 to stay in power," she said.
This was being done by giving the excuse of women, she said, adding that the government would have done delimitation according to its own wishes.
"They thought that if the bill passes, it is fine. If it fails, we will project the opposition as anti-women and become the messiah of women.
“It is not easy to become the messiah of women. We saw what happened to women in Hathras, what happened to our Olympic medallists, and others," Priyanka said.
“The opposition could not have supported the move. It showed that the opposition can defeat them when united,” she added.
In a major setback to the government, the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in legislatures in 2029 and increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 was defeated in the Lower House on Friday.
While 298 members voted in support of the bill, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-thirds majority.
The bill proposed to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats were also to be increased in state and UT assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
The three-day special sitting was convened from April 16 to 18 to secure Parliament's approval for the bill.
After the bill was defeated, the Congress on Friday said the "nefarious attempt" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to link their "dangerous delimitation proposals" to women's reservation has been decisively defeated in the Lok Sabha, calling it a win for democracy and the Constitution.
