Everyday women in India are breaking the glass ceiling and this time around, seven of them from Gujarat’s Surat Forest department are part of a daredevil team which is in the forefront of not just rescuing leopards but also tagging them.

This group from the Mandvi range of the Surat district have mastered the art of rescuing the animals and tagging them with radio-frequency identification or RFID. The tagging of animals, one of the oldest uses of RFID, helps in their identification and tracking. This all-woman group has done RFID for 20 leopards.

Over a period of time, their fear of this cat has reduced and in fact they understand that these ferocious animals are not enemies of humans. Narrating her experience, Pooja Singh, a beat forest guard told TOI, “Once we were controlling fire in Mandvi range in the forest when a leopard crossed us a few feet away. It was one of the closest encounters. But since we are trained, our team did not react and the feline left the spot.”

Apart from the animals, the team also has to sensitively handle situations when people affected by leopard attacks become angry and go out of control. In one incident, the group had fire in the air to disperse the crowd which was refusing them to move away a rescued leopard as it had killed a four-year-old girl in Madharkui village.

The team has been equipped and trained for rescue operations of not just leopards but other animals like monkeys besides treating injured birds.