Leopard strays into Cooch Behar town, captured after 5 hrs of toil

Darjeeling: After nearly five hours of cat and mouse chase, forest personnel managed to tranquilize and capture a leopard that had strayed into Cooch Behar town on Thursday morning.

The incident occurred in Kalabagan area, Ward number 3 of Cooch Behar town. At around 6am local residents spotted the leopard in front of a toilet in that area.

As the alarm was raised many rushed indoors and shut doors and windows. A situation of panic ensued. The more adventurous went to the rooftops to spot the leopard doing the rounds on the streets. The forest department was informed of the leopard.

Meanwhile the district administration imposed Section 144 in the locality as a preventive measure. Miking was done to this effect in order to stop large crowds from gathering. A large police contingent and rescue team from the forest department arrived.

At around 11:30am the forest personnel managed to tranquilize and cage the leopard. The leopard had entered a toilet.

A hole was drilled on the door and through the hole the leopard was tranquilized with a tranquilizer gun. It was then caged.

"We will take it to the Jaldapara range. After conducting a thorough health checkup, if found fit, it will be released in the deep forest," stated Sanjiv Kumar Saha, Divisional Forest officer.