Strayed leopard rescued from industrial unit after 35-hour ops

Gurugram: The leopard that was seen strayed inside the Maruti Suzuki factory in Manesar on Thursday has been rescued after 35 hours of strenous effort.

On Friday afternoon, the big cat was tranquilised and then sent for medical examination immidiately after which it is expected to be released back in the Aravallis forest.

According to forest department officials, it was a six-year-old male leopard. In what can be considered as a major achievement, there was no injury that was sustained by the wild cat during a long and exhaustive process.

It was not easy for the rescue team to track the leopard. More than four teams of wildlife department, 100 Gurugram police officials and even commandoes under supervision by ACP Manesar were entrusted with the major task.

This job was even more crucial as they not only had to rescue the wild animal safely but also ensure that there were no grievous injuries sustained to over 2,000 workers as well as its officials.

There was an added pressure on the team as the delay to track the animal was resulting in the losses in crores of amount as the production work was stalled for a long time. At one point even after 24 hours when the team was not successful, the help from wildlife institute of India was also mulled.

Based on sources, there was a loss of more than Rs 120 crore as there was no work in the factory for more than 12 hours on Thursday.

Taking into cognisance that the operation will take a much longer time, new measures were adopted to bring out the six-year-old leopard out from the hiding. After ascertaining that it was hiding at the power train plant of the industrial unit, the area was sealed and the workers of the evening shift were asked to resume their duties.

Besides using crackers to scare the wild creature, animal flesh also used as the process to trap it. After being in hiding for more than 30 hours, it finally came out to eat the flesh and thereby finally fell into the trap.

The leopard may have been recovered, however, the incident again raised the serious issue of degradation of Aravallis that is resulting in wild animals venturing into human settlements.