Leopard rescued from pipeline

Rajkot: Panic spread in the sprawling Aditya Birla Group’s Indian Rayon factory in the heart of Veraval town when a female leopard entered the premises and then hid in a water pipeline on Tuesday.
Forest department staff had to struggle for nearly three hours to cage the leopard that had sneaked into the unused pipeline after people raised an alarm. According to eyewitnesses, the leopard entered the compound from one of the gates located near old octroi checkpost. Seeing the wild cat moving around, people started running helter and skelter. The leopard too got frightened and rushed inside the pipeline which was out of use.

The pipeline is nearly 100 metre long with a circumference of three feet. A team of forest department rushed to the spot and started the operation to cage the leopard.

Sunil Kumar Berwal, deputy conservator of forest, Junagadh said, “Leopards are very shy and generally avoid conflicts with human. The rescuers blocked one side of the pipe-line while a cage was set up on other side. The team used various techniques to force the leopard into the cage.”