Ship offers comfort of home to leopard in Alang

Nimesh Khakhariya | TNN | May 2, 2020, 04:05 IST

Rajkot: A half dismantled ship turned into a unusual new home for a fully grown leopard at Alang, one of the biggest ship cutting and recycling yards in the world.
The leopard, which had sneaked into the ship, an oil tanker named King Kong 3, was finally captured after a week-long struggle by the forest department, on Friday.
The rescuers were, however, astonished to find out that the leopard had been living inside a dark compartment for nearly four weeks. Alang, which is usually a place bustling with thousands of workers engaged in cutting ships, has been a deserted place as the work has come to standstill due to lockdown.
Officials said they found remains of several dogs inside the compartment, which has led them to believe that the leopard had been easily going out for hunting and returning with its prey to its ‘new’ home. The shipyard is a vast open plot where stray dogs are aplenty around besides sprawling farmlands in the adjoining coastal area.
Sandeep Kumar, deputy conservator of forest, Bhavnagar, told TOI: “The leopard had made a compartment of the half-broken ship its home. It used to go outside during the night and return with a prey. We have found carcass of dogs inside the compartment.”
The leopard was first spotted late in the night last week by a security guard at the plot number 153 where the vessel was beached. The initial efforts to cage the leopard failed and tranquilizing was not possible since it was very dark inside and rescuers were scared to venture too close to the wild cat.
Meanwhile, as the Alang yard falls outside Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation limits, the ship breakers were allowed to resume work as per the government guidelines. They made fervent requests to the forest department to capture the leopard, which had created a scare among all of them.
As it was risky to enter the ship, the rescuers first closed the lone entry into the vessel. With the help of ship owner, they broke one small portion through which a veterinary doctor tranquilized the leopard.
“There was very less oxygen inside and the leopard had smartly made its place near cross ventilation. As a result, the rescuers could spot it from the cavity and got to know its exact hiding place,” Kumar added.
Leopard can survive on dogs, wild boards, nil gai and other herbivorous. However, this one targeted the dogs as they were easier to carry inside the ship.
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Wild cat dodged cage
Rajkot: Much to the surprise of forest officials, the leopard had successfully dodged the cage that was placed at the narrow and lone entry into the broken ship. In fact, the goat placed as a bait inside had died two days ago, probably of heart attack hearing the leopard’s roar.