Maharashtra gives two female leopards a contraceptive vaccine in India's first such trial

The Junnar forest division in Maharashtra's Pune district has given two female leopards an immunocontraceptive vaccine and released them back into the wild, the first step of a scientific study on controlling leopard fertility without killing animals, Down To Earth reports, citing a press statement from forest officials. The study has formal approval from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

Immunocontraception uses a vaccine that triggers an immune response and leaves the animal temporarily infertile. It gives long-term but not permanent protection against pregnancy, and unlike sterilisation it is reversible.

The pilot is aimed at conflict between people and leopards in the densely farmed, sugarcane-growing talukas of Pune district, including Junnar, Ambegaon, Shirur and Khed. Leopard attacks killed 56 people in the Junnar forest division alone between 2000 and 2025, and the issue was prominent during Maharashtra's 2024 state elections.

The project follows an August 2025 directive from Sudhir Mungantiwar, then the state's forest minister, asking the forest department for a leopard sterilisation action plan; in April 2026 the department selected five female leopards for observation. Frontline staff of the Junnar division carry out the field work with an emphasis on safety, minimal trauma and veterinary care, supported by the wildlife rescue group RESQ Charitable Trust. The Indian Council of Medical Research in Mumbai is analysing blood samples to track hormonal changes and the vaccine's longer-term effects.

The study is meant to establish whether immunocontraception is feasible, safe and effective for managing leopards in high-density areas such as Junnar, and the department will monitor the animals throughout. Leopards are listed as "endangered" under the Wildlife Protection Act and on Appendix I of CITES, the convention on trade in endangered species.

The report is by Himanshu Nitnaware for Down To Earth.

Photo: Iamjadhao / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Source: Down To Earth