By reuniting cubs instead of capturing them, we prevent needless suffering and help communities see leopards not as threats, but as neighbours sharing the same land. By Neha Panchamiya
Imagine this: In a farmer’s fields, tractors hum and labourers chop away sugarcane through a sea of green. A few metres away, hidden in the dense crop, a pair of tiny blue-grey eyes blink open, startled, silent, and suddenly alone. It is harvest season in Maharashtra and for three leopard cubs, the wild has just turned into a maze of humans, machines, and noise.
Every year in November, as the sugarcane harvest sweeps across western Maharashtra, the Forest Department and RESQ Charitable Trust helplines begin to buzz with a familiar urgency. Farmers call to report small, spotted cubs found huddled in the fields, sometimes still mewing for their mothers. For her, a sugarcane field is a safe nursery. The tall, dense stalks offer perfect cover from the sun and conceal her litter from danger. She moves silently through the cane at night to nurse them and often hunts nearby, returning before dawn. But when harvesting begins, the security of her den vanishes in minutes. As workers cut the cane, her hiding spot is exposed. Startled by the noise and movement, the mother flees, leaving behind her cubs, who are too small to follow.
That is where our work begins. At RESQ, together with the Maharashtra Forest Department, our goal is always clear: give every leopard cub the best chance of survival back in the wild with its mother.
The cub’s age, weight, hydration, and general health are carefully examined with minimal interaction and touch. Photo: Photo Courtesy RESQ CT.
Once a cub is reported, time becomes critical. Cubs this young cannot survive long without their mother’s warmth or milk. Our team immediately travels to the site with forest officials as fast as possible, equipped with a ready-to-dispatch-with ‘Reunion Kit’, which includes essential field gear and veterinary supplies for such situations.
The first step is assessment. The cub’s age, weight, hydration, and general health are carefully examined. Often, the cubs are only a few weeks old, their spotted coats still soft, their eyes still grey-blue. If the cub is cold or dehydrated, it is gently warmed and given fluids under veterinary supervision. Every action is minimal and deliberate to avoid imprinting human scent. We wear gloves all the time and use a clean cloth to separate us during any form of handling. The cub is then placed in a soft, ventilated crate lined with dry sugarcane leaves from where they were found. This helps it feel secure and also ensures that the scent familiar to its mother is not lost. The team tracks the possible routes the mother will use and a reunion set-up is installed along with live remote monitoring cameras.
Meanwhile, we speak with local farmers and brief them about the process. This is vital because fear and misunderstanding often drive people to act impulsively. When they understand that the cubs can be reunited safely and that this will not lead to further conflict if the cubs are brought up by their mother properly, they usually step forward to help.
Reuniting a leopard cub with its mother is a precise and patient process that relies on both science and instinct.
The crates containing the cubs are placed in the same area where they were found, ideally within the mother’s territory. Dusk is chosen for the reunion because leopards are crepuscular animals, most active during twilight and early night. The cubs, now rested and hydrated, begin to make soft mewing calls. These vocalisations are crucial because they guide the mother back to her cubs.
The team retreats to a safe distance. Using camera traps and thermal imaging, they watch quietly as the night unfolds. The sugarcane fields become a stage of silence, where every rustle might be the mother returning. Sometimes, she comes within hours. Sometimes, it takes the whole night. A mother leopard will not rush in blindly; she first scans the area, scent-marks nearby, and confirms that there is no threat. Her maternal instincts are powerful, but so is her caution.
And then, almost always, it happens. A shadow moves through the cane, the faint glint of eyes in the infrared camera. She approaches the crate, sniffs it cautiously, and hears the familiar sound of her cubs. In a moment that never fails to stir every field responder’s heart, she lowers her head, opens the crate with her paw or jaws, picks up a cub gently by the scruff, and disappears into the darkness. One by one, she collects them all.
Sometimes, a mother does not return on the first night. In such cases, the process is repeated, until we succeed to reunite mother and cubs. Only in rare cases, when all efforts fail, are the cubs transferred for long-term rehabilitation.
Since RESQ began assisting with leopard cub reunions, over 96 cubs have been successfully reunited with their mothers in the last four years.
The mother leopard comes and collects all her missing cubs, one by one! Photo Courtesy RESQ CT.
Every successful reunion has a ripple effect that goes far beyond the rescue itself. When leopard cubs are returned to their mothers, they are not just being saved from danger, they are being given a chance at a wild life. Without reunion, orphaned cubs face only two grim possibilities: perishing in the fields or living a lifetime in captivity. Neither outcome helps conservation or resolves human-leopard conflict.
In fact, removing cubs from their natural environment does not prevent future conflict. A mother who loses her litter will usually breed again in her next cycle, and the leopard population in that area will remain unchanged. What truly changes is how people respond. By reuniting cubs instead of capturing them, we prevent needless suffering and help communities see leopards not as threats, but as neighbours sharing the same land.
These reunions remind us that coexistence is not about removing wildlife from human spaces, but about learning to share them responsibly. Because in the end, every cub that finds its mother again is more than a rescue story. It is living proof that when humans choose understanding over fear, the wild always finds its way home.
Neha Panchamiya is the Founder of RESQ Charitable Trust.
