Doomdoma, Assam, 12 April 2020: Not all animal rescues need to be brought to the wildlife rescue centre. The happiest ending to the story of a displaced animal is to find its mother.

Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) Mobile Veterinary Service reunited a jungle cat kitten with its mother, all in a day’s work. The kitten was spotted by tea garden workers in the Raidung Tea Estate under Doomdooma Forest Division just as they commenced their morning work shift at around 8:00 AM. Assuming it to be a leopard cub, the workers picked it up and handed it over to the forest department range office team at Doomdooma.

WTI’s wildlife veterinarian Dr Khanin Changmai headed out to the Doomdooma range office in the Mobile Veterinary Service Unit from Guijan, about 45 km away. He correctly identified it as a jungle cat kitten, about 15 days old and separated from its litter.

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The vet administered oral rehydration to the dehydrated kitten every 30 minutes. The decision to reunite the kitten was taken immediately with Dilip Deka, DFO (Doomdooma).  Together they decided to attempt a reunion with its mother the same day after the tea plucking workers left for the day.

Our team together with forest department staff placed a camera trap at around 4:00 PM in the presence of the tea garden manager and his staff.

Since it was a very young kitten, a carton with bedding material was used to keep the animal with loosely closed upper flaps and a few small holes in the box for proper ventilation, hoping for the mother to track its kitten.

Khanin ensured another 5ml of Oral Rehydration to the kitten as it may pan out into a long wait for the mother. This was a wise move considering the mother arrived 11 hours later, as documented by the camera trap.

“It gives great happiness for a wildlife vet to be able to reunite a young jungle cat back with its mother; this is true work satisfaction” concluded a beaming Khanin.

WTI rescues, rehabilitates and releases wildlife with the Assam Forest Department and in partnership with IFAW. The MVS unit in Eastern Assam is additionally supported by HCL Foundation and serves to save fauna and mitigate conflict with wildlife in this region.

Read more about this recent case of a leopard rescued from a tea garden and nursed to be sent back to the wild. You can help us keep wildlife forever wild with your support.