Pawan Sharma, honorary wildlife warden of Thane and president of NGO RAWW, said, “Initially, it was estimated that the animal could go back to the wild in a few weeks to a month, but due to the complex nature of the injury, the treatment took months as the animal responded slowly to treatment. Immediate surgery was not possible as it involved a major operation which posed a great risk to the life of the animal.”

The golden jackal at the construction site in Thane in March (Right) the animal after being rescued. Pics/RAWW

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After a series of cold laser therapies, pain management and weeks of cage rest, along with the continuous administration of medicines and antibiotics, the animal got better. The jackal was finally declared fit and was released back into its natural habitat last week by RAWW and forest officials from the Bhiwandi range of the Thane forest department.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has a healthy population of jackals but threats such as habitat destruction, feral dogs and vehicles have been a major threat to them. The animals have been surviving secretively in the mangroves of major cities such as Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane and their behaviour needs to be studied and understood in detail so that conservation efforts can be improved.

Jackals have been seen both scavenging and hunting and have a very interesting diet and prey base, which also needs to be understood. There are huge mangrove forest patches in the MMR, including a portion of the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary, Bhandup pumping station, Charkop, Versova, Vasai, Bhayandar and Ghodbunder Road.

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While there have been many sightings of jackals at these locations, no proper study of them has been carried out, so the Mangrove Foundation has also started a population estimation study of the golden jackal in mangrove forests in and around Mumbai.

In the past, there have been several human-jackal conflict incidents; there have also been instances where the jackals have been rescued from human settlements close to mangrove forests in Mulund and Vikhroli. Golden jackals are native to the Indian subcontinent and play a very important role in forest ecology.