A leopard cub which had entered a residential building called Woodland Crest in Marol, a Mumbai suburb on Monday morning, was rescued by forest officials after four hours of struggle.
The big cat was first spotted in the adjoining building, Woodland Avenue, around 9.30 a.m. “I was taking a photo of the car, when I saw a creature, who I assumed was a stray dog. When I tried to shoo it away, the creature came out, and then I realised that it was a leopard,” Suresh Shinde, a resident of the building, said.
Mr. Shinde raised an alarm. The building’s watchman, Mohit Lal, said he tried to hit the leopard with a stick to shoo it away after which it jumped into Woodland Crest.
A team from the Forest Department and Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) arrived around 11.30 a.m. and after hours of effort, around 2 p.m., the leopard was tranquillised.
The operation was completed by 2.15 p.m. “The cub should be released into the wild by Tuesday,” a forest official said later.