Officials from the forest department said the leopard, believed to be around two years old, was rescued by 5.30 pmOn Friday afternoon, Sajid Ali, who runs a salon in Gurgaon’s Badshahpur area, was shaken to find a leopard that had ventured into his workplace around 3.30 pm.
“I had an inkling the animal was in the vicinity seconds before it ran into the salon. I had seen it jumping off a terrace and running on to the road. People were chasing it and the animal came into my salon looking for shelter,” said Ali, who has hails from Uttar Pradesh and came to Gurgaon around 15 years ago.
“I have never seen a leopard here before, or heard of it coming to this area. I was attending to two clients at the time. The salon has only one door, so we had to wait until the leopard was completely inside before we had a chance to flee ourselves. We quickly closed the shutter behind us to restrict the animal. I was terrified,” he said.
Read | Haryana villagers learn about co-existence — with monkeys, leopards
Ali, however, was not the first person to spot the animal. It was first seen by some labourers doing construction work at the home of Maniram, a resident of Badshahpur, when they went to the basement to collect some equipment.
Rajendra Yadav, Maniram’s brother and a former Excise Taxation Officer, said: “As soon as they spotted the animal, they told Maniram’s son about it, but the animal ran out of the basement and jumped over the wall into my house.” Rajendra and Maniram live next to each other.
Yadav said the animal hid behind a bush, and his wife, mistaking it for a monkey, was going towards it to scare it away when he rushed to stop her. “I asked everyone in my family to go into the house and lock the door. A lot of residents had gathered outside our gate and were trying to see the leopard, but I asked them to leave it alone. I called the police, who alerted the forest department,” said Yadav.
It was while attempts were being made to rescue the leopard that it jumped onto the boundary wall of Yadav’s house and then his terrace. “My nephew was there at the time and the animal attacked him. He sustained some scratches, but he managed to defend himself with a stick. That is when the leopard jumped onto the main road and ran into a salon,” said Yadav.
Officials from the forest department said the leopard, believed to be around two years old, was rescued by 5.30 pm. Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Vinod Kumar said, “A team of five-seven people was rushed to the spot immediately. It was a crowded area and the first aim was to disperse the crowd and rescue the animal safely. Since it was confined, however, this task was made easier and faster.”
“We did not need to use a tranquilliser to capture the animal, and managed to do so using nets and a cage. The animal does not have any exterior injuries and is being kept under observation. If all goes well, it will be released back into the wild in a few hours,” he said.
