A male leopard that entered a house in Palwal district’s Ram Nagar Colony was rescued after a three-hour-long operation on Thursday morning.
The 10-year-old feline had to be tranquillised twice by a Haryana Forest Department team, led by Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife) of Gurugram, Shyam Sunder Kaushik, before it could be rescued. “Since the animal was hiding inside the toilet, the team could not figure out its exact size. To avoid overdose, we first tranquillised him with just 2 ml of medicine assuming that the animal was not grown up. We then tranquillised him again after 10 minutes when the medicine did not have the desired impact,” said Mr. Kaushik.
10-member team
Besides Mr. Kaushik, the 10-member rescue team comprised a veterinary doctor, a wildlife inspector and a sub-inspector, among others. Mr. Kaushik said crowd management was the most difficult part of the operation. “As soon as we got a call at 10.30 a.m. that a leopard was spotted inside a house, we directed the team in Palwal to manage the crowd. The animal was safe as it was inside the washroom,” he said.
The team from Gurugram reached Palwal with the tranquilliser gun and hit the animal with the dart through the drain.
The feline was then brought to Sultanpur National Park in Gurugram for medical examination before it was sent to Rohtak where it will be kept under observation before being released in the wild. “The animal seems healthy and was rescued without injuries,” said Mr. Kaushik.