nagpur a pair of 45dayold leopard cubs were found in a sugarcane field in ozar village in the junnar division of pune district the cubs were successfully reunited with their mother by wildlife sos the forest departmentthe junnarbased ngo wildlife sos and the maharashtra forest department have had quite an actionpacked month it is cub season for leopards and in the latest incident farmers at ozar discovered a pair of baby leopards while harvesting sugarcane crops on thursdayidentified as males the cubs were estimated to be about 45 days wildlife sos veterinarian dr nikhil bangar conducted a meticulous examination for ticks and injuries and found the cubs to be healthy and fit for releasethe team arranged for the young leopards to be returned to the field so that the mother could find her cubs two remotecontrolled camera traps were installed in the field to document the reunion process while the team monitored the area from a safe distancedr bangar said the mother must have been searching for her cubs as it only took 20 minutes for her to find them we can only imagine her relief on finding them safe and sound such reunions are of great importance as they curb conflict situations if female leopards are unable to locate their cubs it is natural for them to turn defensive or aggressive and they pose an immediate threat to humans in close proximitykartick satyanarayan cofounder and ceo of wildlife sos said to survive in the wild and learn the skills of survival it is crucial for leopard cubs to be reared by their mothers for the first two years of their lives to date wildlife sos has assisted the forest department in successfully reuniting over 80 cubs that were lost injured or separated from their mothersforester manisha kale said over the years weve noticed a positive change in the mindset of the local community awareness programs have played a key role in sensitizing them to issues of humanleopard conflict so instead of taking matters into their own hands more and more people are reaching out to us for help when they encounter leopards in the areawildlife sos wsos is a nonprofit charity established in 1998 with the primary objective of rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife in distress across india