Science & TechWildlife
Two female leopards in Junnar get a contraceptive vaccine in India's first such study
Maharashtra's forest department has injected and released the leopards near Pune, testing a non-lethal way to slow population growth in an area where leopard attacks have killed 56 people since 2000.
Key points
- Two female leopards in the Junnar forest division were given an immunocontraceptive vaccine and released.
- Leopard attacks killed 56 people in the division between 2000 and 2025.
- ICMR in Mumbai is analysing blood samples to track hormonal changes in the animals.
Forest officials in Maharashtra’s Junnar division have given two female leopards a contraceptive vaccine and released them back into the wild, in what the department calls India’s first scientific study of immunocontraception as a way to manage leopard numbers without killing or caging the animals.
The forest department said in a statement that the two leopards had received the immunocontraceptive vaccine. The department describes the approach as a “non-lethal method of population management”.
Why Junnar
The Junnar forest division, in Pune district, has a long record of human-leopard conflict. Between 2000 and 2025, leopard attacks killed 56 people there. The issue became a prominent one in Maharashtra’s 2024 assembly election, especially in Pune’s sugarcane-growing talukas.
In August 2025, Sudhir Mungantiwar, then the state’s forest minister, asked the department to draw up an action plan for leopard sterilisation. In April this year, the department picked five female leopards for observation. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change approved the study under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
Who is doing the work
Frontline staff of the Junnar division are running the field operations. RESQ Charitable Trust, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation group, is providing veterinary expertise and support on the ground. The Indian Council of Medical Research in Mumbai is analysing blood samples from the leopards to track hormonal changes and any longer-term effects.
Leopards are listed as endangered under the Wild Life (Protection) Act and in Appendix I of CITES, the global treaty on trade in endangered species.