The adult male leopard was roaming freely around the colony for the past five days
Srinagar: After giving sleepless nights to the residents of Bagh-e-Mehtab colony in Srinagar, an adult male leopard roaming freely around the area for the past five days has been finally rescued on Saturday morning.
Panic gripped the area when amateur footage and CCTV clips emerged on social media on December 28, showing the animal scaling walls in the neighbourhood and leaving a trail of pug marks on the snow-covered surfaces.
Following this a rescue operation was launched by wildlife officials, which, however, turned futile.
“Earlier a rescue operation could not yield any results as the local people behaved irresponsibly. Due to this we failed to sedate the animal,” Wildlife Warden Central Altaf Hussain said.
He added, “after that, it became untraceable. We assumed that the animal could possibly have retraced its steps into the natural habitat. However, on Saturday morning at 9:30, we received a phone call from a woman,” he said.
She informed us that the leopard was sighted in the premises of an abandoned building near a water tank at Bagh-e-Mehtab, the official explained.
Immediately, a team comprising of Wildlife Wetland division, and Central division rushed to the spot.
“We started the rescue operation again. The two teams worked hand in hand and after three hours, we successfully managed to tranquillize the animal this time. It has been taken to Dachigam National Park for monitoring now,” Wildlife Veterinarian, Dr Umar Nazir told Free Press Kashmir.
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