Assam: Rare Black Panther Caught in Cage Near Demow

DIBRUGARH: A rare black panther living in the wild was successfully captured and caged in Dhemase village, near Demow of Assam’s Sivasagar district on Wednesday.

According to reports, forest officials were forced to take action on the elusive black cat as it had been terrorizing the villagers in the area for the past few months.

A black panther is the melanistic (dark brown colour) variant of the leopard (Panthera pardus) and the jaguar (Panthera onca). Although they have excess black pigments, their typical rosettes are still present.

Black panthers—or melanistic leopards—have a condition that causes their body to produce an excess of black pigment, making their fur darker. According to National Geographic, about 11 percent of leopards have the condition. Sightings of melanistic leopards are incredibly rare.

The big cat is mostly found in the equatorial rainforests of Malaya and in the tropical rainforests of Mount Kenya, Java, Southwestern China, Myanmar, and Nepal. In India, it is mainly found in Kerala and Assam.

An environmentalist hailed the capture of the black panther and said, “It’s great news that the black panther still roams in the jungles of Assam. The black panther is a rare species, and its presence in the Assam jungle is good news for nature lovers.”

The capture of the rare big cat was a significant feat, providing relief to the villagers who had been living in fear for the past few months.

At the start of 2023, on January 2, Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden in Guwahati announced the recent birth of a new member in the zoo, a Black Panther cub, to parents Meena and Mohan.

Mohan, the male black panther, was raised at the Guwahati zoo after being rescued from Doomdooma in Upper Assam’s Tinsukia district some nine years ago. He was about one and a half months old then and was hand-raised by the zoo staff.

Meena was rescued by the state forest department in the Khowang Range of Dibrugarh district in May 2017 and brought to the zoo in Guwahati. The big cat had strayed into the villages and was severely injured when people cornered and attacked her.

Assam Zoo is now the only zoo in the country to have a total of six black panthers in captivity--a family of five black panthers, including the cub. The zoo fraternity is extremely delighted and had a small celebration after the birth of the cub.

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