A seriously injured leopard with a snare around its left paw was caged near Virar by the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) leopard rescue team, along with local staff and NGO SARRP on Wednesday. The officials are now investigating the involvement of Bahelia poachers from Katni in Madhya Pradesh.

A couple of weeks back, the Mandvi range of the forest department had received information about the continuous movement of a leopard, close to a tribal hamlet Kashid-Kopar, adjacent to the forested patch near Virar East. A video of locals saying they had seen a ‘tiger’ had also gone viral on some WhatsApp groups.