Three wild cat kittens rescued in north Mumbai.

Mumbai, Jun 11 (UNI) Three kittens belonging to the wild cat species were found today at Aarey Colony in suburban Goregoan bordering the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in north Mumbai.

Intially, labourers who spotted the kittens mistook them as cubs of a leopard, police said.

Subsequently a team of wildlife experts from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park declared the rescued animals as kittens of the wild cat species, added police.

''Animals, particularly wild cats, do venture out of the National Park by accident or in search of food. But most of the time, the animals are traced, brought back and released after a medical test,'' said a forest official.

In the past there had been several incidents of leopards and wild cats being trapped or spotted in residential colonies, particularly in the Aarey Colony area and as far as Powai in Suburban Andheri in 2004.

In most cases the trapped leopards are released back to the National Park. But a few years ago authorities had released several killer leopards in the forest areas of eastern Maharashtra against the normal practice of sending them back to the park.

UNI