Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
Big cat in concrete jungle leaves 5 injured
Leopard wanders into 4-storeyed Shriram Anugraha Tower in Kalyan. Petrified residents stay locked inside their homes during the 10-hour rescue operation
KALYAN: Five persons were injured after being attacked by a male leopard, which wandered into a congested area of Kalyan East, entered a chawl and subsequently got trapped in a fourstoreyed building. The incident happened on Thursday around 8.30 am.
The animal was cornered inside the four-storeyed Shriram Anugraha building for 10 long hours. Petrified residents stayed locked inside their homes even as they helped the rescue team locate the leopard, which was constantly moving between floors. It was finally tranquilised on the fourth floor at around 6 pm.
Those injured in the incident were Rajiv Pandey, 38, who suffered severe head injuries, Rama Singh, an 85-year-old senior citizen who was attacked outside his room and Manohar Gaikwad, 70, who lived in a chawl behind the building. Gaikwad’s right leg was mauled thrice, leaving him with severe injuries.
Dinesh Gupta, who headed the SGNP rescue team, also suffered an injury to his hand while another person from the rescue team, Harshal Salvi, got away with a minor injury on his finger.
“The Thane forest department received information about the leopard entering the building,” Girija Desai, assistant conservator, forest department, Thane, told HT.
“The building is very congested, which delayed rescue operations. We inspected the building to check how we could trap the animal but could not get proper access due to its tricky layout.”
Dr Shailesh Pethe, senior veterinarian, SGNP, said the leopard was extremely aggressive. “It was tough to target it with tranquilising darts, as it kept moving from the staircase and passage,” he said. “We had to try many different methods to scare it so that it could be tranquilised and rescued.”
As the leopard was in Wing B of the building, some rescuers went to the terrace of Wing A to locate its position with the help of drones. Apart from the rescue team comprising eight members of SGNP, around 100 members of the forest department and local police and firemen, residents also helped in tracing the leopard. They banged their doors to scare it, burst firecrackers in the passage area and kept the team informed about its movements.
Kiran Gupta, 32, who lives on the first floor of Wing B, said, “We kept a watch on the leopard through the safety door. It was moving from the second to the third floor. Once, when I tried peeping out through the safety door at 12.30 pm, it leapt at me. We were scared but we wanted the rescue to end soon, and so helped the team in locating the leopard.”
Shriram Anugraha is located on Chinchpada Road, a bustling area with continuous traffic. One of the busiest lanes in Kalyan East, Chinchpada Road has buildings on both sides and is surrounded by chawls.
Wildlife rescuer Suhas Pawar told HT that incidents of leopards entering urban areas had been increasing in the last three years. “Leopards have been spotted in Badlapur and Ulhasnagar as well,” he said. “There should be rescue teams in Kalyan and nearby cities as the rescue takes time.” Pawar added that the Haji Malang forest was very close to areas like Badlapur, Ulhasnagar and Kalyan, and preventive measures needed to be taken to curb such incidents.
Onlookers crowded the street outside the building, holding their cameras intact for hours to spot the leopard.
Nilesh Bhange, head of Plant and Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), said, “In last five years, there have been three incidents of leopards entering urban areas. Earlier, a leopard had entered a bungalow in Ulhasnagar. A leopard’s head was stuck in a pot in a farm house in Badlapur. Now this is the third incident of leopards entering Kalyan East. Leopards in Thane district are not fitted with microchips and radio collars. Also, their head count has not been done.”