South Khayerbari (Bengal), July 26: Three leopards at South Khayerbari animal rescue centre had their nails trimmed by foresters today so that the animals could be protected against infections and could move with ease.
The centre under Wildlife Division III turned into a beauty parlour around 9.45am. Assistant wildlife warden of Jaldapara Niranjita Mitra, veterinary officer A.K. Singh, leopard caretaker Hamid Ali and tiger caretaker Partho Sarothi Sinha were ready with a nail cutter and medicines to tranquillise the animals.
The first one to have the pedicure was Raju, an old male. While Hamid was trying to bring Raju close to cage bars, the vet was busy preparing a dose to dart the animal.
Singh mixed 2ML of Ketamil and 0.5ML of Xylazil and injected Raju with the medicine. But the dart failed to make the old male slump. The doctor had to make another dose —1Ml Ketamil and 0.5ML Xylazil — and give the injection to the animal.
Although the leopard dozed off under the influence of the second dart, the foresters were not ready to take risk.
Raju was shifted to a squeeze cage for the nail cut. The leopard was kept on one side of the cage and caretakers Ali and Sinha started trimming its nails with a sharp nail cutter. Raju lifted its head slightly, but was unable to turn the body. All 20 nails of Raju were cut and about 11am, it was put back in the old cage.
Similarly, the foresters went for the nail cutting of two other leopards — Manchali, a female, and Kalu, a male. All the three leopards were rescued from tea gardens.
The rescue centre, located around 50km from Alipurduar, has nine leopards. But only three of them had overgrown nails. Omprakash, the divisional forest officer of wildlife III said, the thumbnails of the three leopards had started growing deep inside their body.
“The overgrown nails can cause infection. Besides, the leopards could not move freely in the courtyard of the rescue centre properly with long nails. So, we decided to trim the nails of the three animals. This is for the first time that such an operation was carried out at the centre. In the wild, leopards scratch on trees and stumps, so, the nails will not grow beyond an extent,” said the DFO.
