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It took 300 men to find, tranquilise leopard that entered Gujarat secretariat

The wild cat had entered the complex of government offices in a high security zone on Sunday night and it was caught on CCTV cameras.

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Panic and excitement spread across Gandhinagar city after the news on Monday morning that a leopard had entered the Gujarat government secretariat.

The wild cat had entered the complex of government offices in a high security zone on Sunday night and it was caught on CCTV cameras. More than 300 government staff including forest and police department officials were deployed for the rescue operation that went on for twelve hours.

The leopard had entered the complex after travelling through the ravines of the Sabarmati river, probably while looking for a prey. The blue bulls roaming in the wilderness surrounding the high security zone are believed to have brought the predator to the area. This zone includes offices and residences of the governor, CM, ministers, high-ranked officials and office bearers in the government. The secretariat and government offices in the area were forced to shut down for two hours because of the incident.

The rescue team drove the leopard into a culvert where they managed to restrict the animal's movement with the help of traps, ropes and other tools. After several attempts over hours, the animal was tranquilised and caged.
Additional Chief Secretary, Forest Department, Rajiv Kumar Gupta said: "At around 2:00am, our CCTV system located one leopard and its movement was traced. Around 300 to 350 personnel searched the 1 sqkm campus and it was confirmed that leopard went out. The complex of secretariat was sanitised and movement of people was restricted for the initial hours."

Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) AK Saxena said: "Looking at the habits of leopards, we were sure that it would try to hide in daytime and would be looking for shelter for that. We found that the leopard had moved into the wilderness near Punit Van. It required immense hard work and lots of efforts to rescue the big cat." All tourist spots near Sabarmati river will remain closed on Tuesday as precautionary measure. As per the last census held in 2016-17, there are 16 leopards in forests of Sabarkantha and Arvalli districts neighbouring Gandhinagar. A leopard was found in Gandhinagar in 2009.

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The secretariat and government offices in Gandhinagar were forced to shut down for two hours after news of a leopard roaming the premises spread.

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