Captured leopard returns to the wild
We had checked for evidence of wild animals in the entire region including Indore, Barwani, Burhanpur, Dhar, Jhabua, Khandwa, Khargone and Alirajpur and found about 18 to 20 cases of the animal’s presence in the region, with maximum instances reported in Choral and Mhow.
Indore : The leopard, which was captured after it strayed into Palhar Nagar throwing the people as well as administration in city into serious tizzy on Friday, returned to the forests of Omkareshwar on Saturday evening.
According to forest conservator RP Rai, ranger with forest department Khurshid Khan visited the area from where the wild cat was captured again on Saturday morning and figured out the most possible route taken by the leopard to enter the city.
Following the inspection, Khan said “As we observed, the area has a big garden followed by a large open field with big warehouses which further spreads to Dewas. Thus, there is a high possibility that the leopard ventured into the city from Dewas side taking the Mangila route.”
Elaborating further, he said “There is also a pond near to the area where leopards normally frequent to chill and find food. This leopard might have strayed and got into the human settlements. Actually, the ever increasing loss of habitat and scarcity of food are the major reasons behind these kinds of man-animal conflicts.”
However, after receiving mandatory fitness certificate of the leopard confirming its suitable health condition, the feline was released into the wild in the evening.
“We have been guided to release all the captured wild animals in the forests of Omkareshwar after establishing their fitness and therefore, following the norms we took the leopard in a van and released it there, informed Rai.
Talking about the fitness of leopard, city zoo in charge Dr Uttam Yadav said, “The leopard seemed perfectly fit, but very hungry. It was given chicken at the city zoo last night for dinner. Probably, lack of food forced him to enter the city, because otherwise the animal seemed perfectly healthy in every possible way.”
Referring to the latest wildlife survey in Indore region, Rai said “We had checked for evidence of wild animals in the entire region, including Indore, Barwani, Burhanpur, Dhar, Jhabua, Khandwa, Khargone and Alirajpur and found about 18 to 20 cases of the animal’s presence in the region, with maximum evidences in Choral and Mhow.”
Meanwhile, according to the forest department one of the two persons injured in the Friday’s feline attack was identified as Gopal Painter, a resident of Palhar Nagar. “Though he did not have any serious injury, he needs injections to safeguard from possible diseases from leopard bite. Painter was given required medications at Lal Hospital, informed the forest ranger Khan.