Two successive incidents of wild cat sightings in the city have spiked up the anxiety levels of the city’s residents on Wednesday and Thursday.
In the first instance, a Civet cat (Asian palm civet) was found on the ramparts of Noorani Masjid near Fateh Darwaza of Golconda Fort late on Wednesday. Rumours of a Black Panther sighting immediately caught up, keeping the residents nearby awake the whole night. Much to their relief, the animal was rescued early on Thursday by a Forest team, and shifted to the Nehru Zoological Park.
Rescue operations on
Close on the heels of the rescue came news about sighting of a leopard on the road near the Katedan underbridge, in the peripheries of Mylardevpally. The feline was reportedly found sitting on the road for close to an hour-and-a-half probably due to injuries, before the Forest teams began rescue operations.
Pursued by rescue teams, it later found shelter in a 100-acre farm on the Shamshabad route. Police and Forest Department officials, together with rescue teams from Nehru Zoological Park, secured the area and are attempting to capture the big cat when reports last came in.
Unconfirmed reports say that a person who went too close to the animal was attacked and received mild injuries. However, Forest Department officials said no such incident came to their notice.