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Big cat at play: Leopard at Andheri pre-school

SGNP officials rescue the animal after12 hours

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The leopard being rescued
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A leopard found its way into Sher-e-Punjab, a major residential colony in Andheri (East), around 7am on Sunday, and entered Junior Crafting Nursery, a preschool. A team from Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) arrived at the spot at at 6pm and finally rescued the animal.

The one-and-a-half year old female leopard was first spotted by a boy near a gurudwara wall, two buildings away from the preschool. Najju Khan, the security guard of the gurudwara, saw the leopard jump off the wall and enter another building complex. "This is first such incident in this area," he said.

Vikas Gupta, a vendor, said, "The residents locked themselves inside. Morning walkers saw the leopard on the premises. It was scary because nothing of this sort has happened in this colony before. Luckily, no one was harmed."

Officers from MIDC police station reached the spot and managed the situation with activists, but there was little that Thane forest officials could do, because such cases are handled by the SGNP rescue team. "The SGNP team had been in Chalisgaon, and were on their way back. So we had to wait for them. In the meantime, we ensured that nets were put around the preschool to foil any escape attempt by the leopard. Its movements were being monitored through the CCTV camera inside the school," said Dr Jitendra Ramgaonkar, Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF), Thane forest department. He added that the SGNP team reached the site at 6pm, made a small hole through a window and Dr Shailesh Pethe led the operation and rescued the animal around 6.30pm. It has been shifted to SGNP for medical tests.

Ramgaonkar said that they were taken by surprise to find a leopard in this area, but it was clear that it had come from Aarey colony to prey on dogs and lost its way. Wildlife experts said that Aarey was just about two kilometres away, and leopards have run amok and come into human habitats in search of prey.

"We managed the traffic for more than eight hours and turned the colony into a silent zone. This ensured that there was no panic and the rescue was safe," said Dilip Utekar, police inspector of MIDC police station.

In December 2012, a leopard had entered one of the buildings in the ONGC colony at Poonam Nagar Andheri (East). That animal was also rescued by the forest department.

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