Leopard strays into residential area, injuring four in India

A leopard strayed into a residential area in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Friday, injuring four people.

The big cat first visited an under-construction house in Indore’s Palkhar Nagar area and then rushed into the residence of local businessman, where it sat for about three hours occasionally coming out to attack a team of forest officials and spectators.

The first emergency call about the situation was made to the the local police, who reached the area and called the forest department with the local zoo administration immediately.
The forest officials used a net to capture the animal but the beast dodged and attacked SDO (forest) RC Choubey and rushed to the Patodi residence.

“Initially, we tried to use the stun gun and fired two pellets. However, both of them missed the target. The third shot hit the leopard. The tranquiliser used in the process was given according to the size of the leopard but it was insufficient,” zoo in-charge and veterinarian Uttam Yadav said.

After an hour later, SDO RN Saxena went inside the house to check if the animal had been sedated. The plan back-fired as the leopard attacked on Saxena, injuring him and tried to escape the place.

After the second dose, it took half an hour for the animal to go unconscious and was trapped in a steel cage by the forest officials who carried it away from the locality amidst the loud cheering from the residents.