Nainital’s favourite big cat ready to head home

Nanital Zoo plans to keep the trophy inside the same enclosure where Rani used to stay when she was alive

The much-loved snow leopardess who died last year has been made into a lifelike trophy by taxidermist Santosh Gaikwad from Bombay Veterinary College and will be flown to Delhi soon

Virat A Singh

Posted On Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 02:01:07 AM

Less than a year after Rani the snow leopardess died, Mumbai is all set to gift the Nanital Zoo an everlasting memory of her. Rani’s body was brought in to Mumbai from Nanital in April 2010.

Dr Santosh Gaikwad, a Mumbai-based taxidermist, has finished working on a trophy of Rani, which will be given to Nanital later this month.

Parag Madhukar Dhakate, Divisional forest officer of the Tarai Haldwani region in Uttarakhand, said, “Those visiting the Nainital zoo were emotionally attached to Rani who was the only snow leopard there.

“Hence, a decision was taken to convert her into a trophy after her death and now we are even planning to keep her trophy inside the same enclosure where she used to stay when alive.”

Dhakate, who visited the Maharashtra State Wildlife Taxidermy Centre at SGNP on Tuesday morning, felt the trophy was very lifelike. The trophy stands four feet tall and is six feet long. It weights around 80 kg.

Dhakate added that the trophy would be taken by flight to Delhi from where it will be taken to GB Pant High Altitude Zoo at Nainital.

Dr Gaikwad, who works as professor of anatomy at Bombay Veterinary College, said the job of making Rani’s trophy was not a cakewalk.

Despite having made around 50 trophies of various animals - ranging from lions to elephants - Gaikwad said it was a challenge to make sure Rani’s looked real and the proportions were the same.

“Another problem was that the skin on the leopard’s body had lost a lot of fur, despite being preserved for months,” he said, “Most of the skin had bundled up. I had to conduct a lot of chemical procedures on the coat to ensure there was no further loss of fur and it looked fresh.”

Gaikwad started making the trophy in July, three months after Rani’s death and completed the task in December.

Gaikwad said he was happy with the creative freedom given to him by the Uttarakhand forest officials.

“I gave it a standing pose, with front limbs elevated on the rocks. This trophy is also special as all its sharp claws have been retained, as per the wish of the forest officials,” he added.

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