India, Nov. 18 -- PUNESeventeen months after the Maharashtra government submitted a proposal for a leopard birth control programme, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) granted its approval on Monday, making it the country's first such initiative.

The pilot will begin in Junnar, a region that has emerged as the epicentre of human-leopard conflict in the state and is one of the most challenging landscapes for big cat management in the country. The region is dotted with sugarcane fields and human settlements where the movement of leopards is swift and capturing them is a challenge.

The programme will be implemented in phases. "In the first phase, the birth control experiment will be executed on five female leopa...