Leopard runs amok in Agra city, rescued after four hours

A leopard that had strayed into the urban clusters here two days back was rescued on Tuesday after a fourhourlong operation in Etmauddaula area across YamunaThe leopard had attacked one person in the Sitanagar locality about five kilometres from the Taj Mahal Soon after that the locals locked the feline inside a godown and informed the forest departmentA team of Wildlife SOS rescued the animal who had perhaps lost its way from Bharatpur area in Rajasthan hid around the dense green cover in the Agra Fort area before crossing over the Etmauddaula police station areaThe leopard caused a wave of panic among the residents before finding itself locked inside a mango godown It could have harmed more people but timely intervention by the locals helped the officials to rescue the animalAlso read Leopard spotted in Dindoshi was rescued from Thane mallPolice said the CCTV footage installed in the street captured the big cat running out of a house and wandering frantically across the narrow crowded streets The leopard eventually made its way into a godown and the locals managed to lock the animal insideA large crowd gathered to witness the rare operation The rescuers drilled a hole into the wall to tranquilise the leopard and then inserted a camera through the hole to locate the leopardThe forest officers and police personnel took crowd control measures while Wildlife SOS veterinary doctor SIlayaraja immobilised the leopard using a sedative injection through the holeThe leopard was carefully transferred to a transit facility for temporary observationIlayaraja Deputy Director of Veterinary Services at Wildlife SOS said The leopard is a male between 7 and 8 years old Such rescue operations are highly sensitive and need careful planning in order to ensure the safety of the animal as well as of the people With a huge crowd of over two hundred people gathered around the rescue was extremely challengingKartick Satyanarayan cofounder amp CEO Wildlife SOS said The depletion of natural prey base and habitat due to encroachment and deforestation is forcing wild animals like leopards to seek out easily available prey such as poultry and livestock in human settlementsThis often leads to humanleopard conflict which can have violent and brutal consequences for both humans and wildlife We are grateful to the forest Department and the police for making this rescue a successAkhilesh Pande Divisional Forest Officer Agra said This is a densely populated area so the leopard sighting caused a wave of panic among the residents After deploying our team to assess the situation we contacted Wildlife SOS for their assistance in the rescue operation We were able to provide effective and timely intervention with their helpThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever