LEOPARD RESCUED FROM FARIDABAD INDUSTRIAL UNIT AFTER TWO-HOUR OP
2ND INCIDENT THIS YEAR The animal had wandered into an empty manufacturing unit
GURUGRAM : An adult male leopard was rescued from Faridabad’s Sarupur industrial area on Friday afternoon after it strayed into a temporarily closed manufacturing unit.
Wildlife department officials said the animal, who is between eight and nine years, is safe in their custody and will be medically examined before being rehabilitated in the wild.
Eyewitness accounts state the leopard entered the area early on Friday, while it was still dark, with one local claiming he saw the animal sleeping atop a neem tree in Sarupur village at 5am.
An elderly woman and her two grandchildren also claimed that they caught a glimpse of the animal roaming the village streets shortly after sunrise.
Locals in the nearby industrial area, which is densely packed, said they saw the leopard scrambling from rooftop to rooftop before entering the premises of a company that manufactures industrial machine parts. “Luckily, the factory was empty as the workers have all gone home for Chhatt Puja and are yet to return,” said Jagmal Singh, the police officer who received word about the animal from locals around 9am.
“I immediately called the wildlife department. People were quite agitated as no leopard has been seen in this area before. They told me they have shut the gates of the factory and were waiting for help,” Singh added.
Sarupur industrial area, though close to known leopard habitats like Pali village, is further away from the district’s Aravalli region, where a healthy population of leopards is believed to reside.
Wildlife inspector Raj Kumar, of the Faridabad district wildlife department, said, “We were informed early around 9am that a leopard has been spotted. We immediately reached the spot, but since we did not have a tranquilliser, we had to procure it from Gurugram and wait till about 2pm before we could attempt a rescue.” The rescue operation finally concluded at 4.30pm, after which the animal was put in a cage and taken away to an undisclosed location.
This is the second time this year that a leopard rescue has taken place in the region. An earlier incident in August saw an adult male leopard stray into a residential home in Badshahpur, before being rescued.
AREA FROM WHERE THE ANIMAL WAS RESCUED BY OFFICIALS IS CLOSE TO KNOWN LEOPARD HABITATS, SUCH AS PALI VILLAGE
In January, leopard sightings from Ferozepur Jhirka in Nuh also put wildlife officials on alert.
In addition to these incidents, there have also been four leopard deaths in the region this year. Two were killed in road accidents, on the GurugramFaridabad Road near Pali village in January, and another last month on NH-48 in Manesar. Another leopard was electrocuted to death in Sohna’s Mandawar village in July.