Pune: The district collector 's office on Monday sanctioned Rs1.5 crore for the Junnar forest division to set up solar fences around houses prone to leopard attacks . On the night of Oct 19, a seven-year-old boy was killed by a leopard at Shirur village in Junnar.
This was the seventh human casualty in Junnar since April this year. The forest division had earlier proposed solar fencing around 153 houses in Junnar and Shirur talukas. Anybody, be it animals or human beings, would feel shock waves upon contacting the solar fences.
The plan was to fence houses, mostly in secluded areas, for a radius of around 50m. Space will be kept for safety of livestock. "As the district collector has sanctioned Rs1.
5 crore for the project, we can now set up fences around 500 houses," said Amol Satpute, deputy conservator of forests, Junnar. The collector's office has also sanctioned Rs16.6 crore for the expansion works of the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre in Junnar.
The amount would be utilised to build a compound wall and construct day-and-night cages at the rescue centre. Satpute said the cases would be important for leopard rescue operations in future. The division had earlier acquired 12 hectares from the irrigation department to increase the capacity of the centre from housing 44 leopards to 125.
"We are, however, still awaiting the Central Zoo Authority's approval for the expansion. We are expecting the approval by the end of the assembly election period," he said. Shirur taluka has be.
