![]() About 500 owners and 1,700-plus workers come here,” says Shiraj. “The farm has 16,000 to 17,000 buffaloes at any point. ![]() “Once, it entered the farm but did not attack the buffaloes,” he says. Mohammed’s father Shiraj Salim owns a buffalo farm. Shiraj takes me to a corner of his farm, where a leopard regularly visits and sits on a hay-stack. “A few days ago, I saw a female leopard crossing the road with two cubs.” “You can’t let down your guard,” says Mohammed, a teen living in the area. With pandemic restrictions in force, the bustle is muted. On my visit, I meet Imran Iqbal Udat, a long-time Aarey Milk Colony resident, and Ranjeet Jadhav, media professional and conservationist. This is a miracle city forest, the lung of Mumbai. The park and several green pockets around it, like the Aarey Milk Colony, Film City, IIT-Bombay are leopard territories, and are spread around 140 sq km. Humans and leopards co-exist in Mumbai - and one cannot take chances. From dusk to dawn, if they have to step out, they carry torches or sticks or both. Leopards have attacked humans on several occasions last year, and sightings are frequent.Īt the places I visit, on the periphery of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park sandwiched between the eastern and western suburbs of Mumbai, people are alert. An eerie calm pervades Aarey Milk Colony as soon as the sun sets.
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