Off The Cuff

Villagers stop harvesting fields to save 5 jungle cat cubs

November 10, 2021
Sezarr

Five wild cat cubs were reunited with their mother.

Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Parveen Kaswan often shares informative posts on forests, agriculture and animals. In a Twitter thread on Wednesday, he shared a clip from the rescue operation of five feral cat cubs from an agricultural farm. Mr Kaswan did not disclose the location of the rescue – as is his policy to avoid undue human intervention in most cases. According to the IFS official, Jungle Cat (Felis chaus) is a protected species.

Sharing a video of the cubs, he wrote: “And all the five wild cat cubs were rescued. Found by farmers during harvesting in a field. In the clip, we see a close-up of a cub. Then, we are shown five cubs lying on a field. Farmers and local people are seen making arrangements for the cubs.

Mr. Kaswan followed up with more details. He wrote that the cubs were too young to survive without their mother, so the villagers decided to help reunite the family. The land was “fenced” for this purpose, and “the villagers decided to stop harvesting for the time being”.

“Camera traps were installed in the area,” wrote Mr. Kaswan. Villagers and rescue teams were also stationed near the spot during the night.

In the next tweet, he shared the picture of the mother cat. Mr. Kaswan said that the mother came in the night and took all the cubs to the forest. “She started the process in the evening and shifted all her cubs to the forest by midnight. Without any disturbances,” he added in the caption.

In the area where the cubs were found, farmers temporarily stopped harvesting. Everything was fine by 2 pm, resulting in a “chaotic” space for the rest of the day and the entire night, Mr Kaswan said in the next thread of tweets.

Mr Kaswan ended his Twitter thread on a witty note, saying the mother had to “give some extra time” when trying to relocate the cubs to the forest, but she managed to do so within a few hours.

As of writing, the video clip had been viewed over 30,000 times and liked by over 1,600 users. One user commented that the incident revealed a “beautiful relationship between our farmers and officials”.

Another user expressed his gratitude to the rescue team and everyone involved in dealing with the situation.

One user termed it as ‘cute work’.

Another user felt relieved to see the cubs reunited with their mother. The user commented, ‘Happy reunion.

According to Mr. Kaswan, the jungle cat, or Felis chaus, is a protected species.

click for more trending news

,