The Maharashtra Forest Department is planning a leopard sterilisation programme in Pune district’s Junnar taluka. The department will carry out laparoscopic tubectomy on 36 females and laparoscopic vasectomy on 11 males after receiving the environment ministry’s approval. 

De Amol Kolhe, member of Parliament (MP) from Shirur, has been demanding that the department should take measures to control the leopard population. He has discussed the issue in Lok Sabha and also wrote a letter to Bhupender Yadav, Union minister of environment, forest and climate change. Dr Kolhe had sent a proposal for population control of leopards through targeted birth control measures in the Junnar forest division.