Written by Sushant KulkarniPune | November 4, 2025 01:49 AM IST 2 min readFollowing orders of the PCCF, the head of Maharashtra's forest department, the forest department sought assistance from Chandrakant Mandlik, who retired from the Indian Air Force as a Junior Commissioned OfficerAn Indian Air Force veteran with an experience in training target shooters and neutralising wild animals and three shooters from the Junnar area trained under him have been deployed to tranquilise and capture or shoot and eliminate a leopard, which is proving to be a threat to human life in Shirur taluka.Their deployment comes a day after 13-year-old Rohan Bombe was killed in Shirur taluka on Sunday afternoon in the fifth such fatality arising from human-leopard conflict in Pune district this year. This is the second death in a leopard attack in Pimparkhed village and a third in the area, in just less than a month.Following orders of the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF)—the head of Maharashtra’s forest department, the forest department sought assistance from Chandrakant Mandlik, who retired from the Indian Air Force as a Junior Commissioned Officer and currently runs his shooting and weapons training institute in Pune. The three others assigned for the task with him are his students — Vinod Sonavale, Navnath Falke and Dhananjay Kokne — all of whom are from Junnar region. The trio bring understanding of local dynamics and terrain for the operation, said officials.Also Read | Remove leopards from Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act: Shirur MP Amol KolheSpeaking to The Indian Express, Mandlik, who runs Rana’s Shooting Range and Weapon’s Training Institute in Pune’s Narhe area, said, “After my retirement from the Air Force, I ran an academy to train youth for competitive exams. For the last few years, I have been running a government approved weapons training institute. The preliminary task assigned to us is to tranquilise and capture the leopards who are suspected to be behind the attacks. If that attempt fails, we are to shoot and eliminate the animal as per guidelines. We are working in coordination with forest officials and local villagers.”Forest officials said on Monday evening, their operation was briefly disrupted after villages blocked some of the approach roads and burnt tyres, demanding a permanent solution to the human-leopard conflict.Sushant Kulkarni is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Pune with 12+ years of experience covering issues related to Crime, Defence, Internal Security and Courts. He has been associated with the Indian Express since July 2010. Sushant has extensively reported on law and order issues of Pune and surrounding area, Cyber crime, narcotics trade and terrorism. His coverage in the Defence beat includes operational aspects of the three services, the defence research and development and issues related to key defence establishments. He has covered several sensitive cases in the courts at Pune. Sushant is an avid photographer, plays harmonica and loves cooking. ... Read MoreClick here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:IAFLeopard attacks