Gandhinagar, Nov 5: A leopard has entered the Sachivalaya compound in Gandhinagar early morning today. The state secretariat has been shutdown completely and no employees have been allowed to enter the premises until the leopard is located and rescued.
The feline, which entered the government building at aroud 3 am is said to have come from the side of nearby Indroda Park. A CCTV shot of the incident shows a leopard entering the premises from under Gate 7. Another camera shows it pause just inside the gate and come back out again almost immediately.
Cages and tranquillizers have been set up and forest officials are on the spot. It may be noted that this is the main building of the Gujarat government where all the government work happens, all ministries departments work from the building.
WATCH: Leopard entered Secretariat premises in Gujarat's Gandhinagar, early morning today. Forest department officials are currently conducting a search operation to locate the feline (Source: CCTV footage) pic.twitter.com/eQYwATbk2b
— ANI (@ANI) November 5, 2018
This is the third case of man-animal conflict that has grabbed headlines on the backdrop of the recent hunt of man-eating tigress Avni, in Maharashtra's Yavatmal district and the killing of a tigress by UP villagers off Pilbhit.
On Sunday, angry villagers killed a tigress in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) area by running a tractor over it, after the animal fatally attacked a local resident.
In a similar incident, a male leopard, aged around three years, was crushed to death by an unknown vehicle on Somnath Highway near Dilawarnagar in Vanthali taluka of Jundagdh district.
This was the fourth such incident of leopard death in a road mishap in Gujarat, in less than two weeks.
In the night of October 24, a leopard was killed in a similar manner between Atul and Pardi areaon Valsad-Mumbai Highway in Valsad district.
In the morning of October 26, another leopard was hit to death on Junagadh-Somnath Highway near Vanthali in Junagadh district.