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Missing leopard rescued from Marol's abandoned factory

The big cat was first spotted in the wee hours of Saturday by residents of Halimabai Chawl located close to the Marol Moroshi bus depot.

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The leopard which was rescued on Thursday
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In a joint operation that lasted for five days, staff from Thane territorial forest department along with a team of wildlife enthusiasts, managed to pull off a major rescued operation after they successfully trapped a leopard that had been taking refuge in an abandoned industrial unit in the busy Marol area of Andheri (East) at 3am on Thursday.

Medical examination of the leopard carried out by Veterinary Officer, SGNP, Dr Shailesh Pethe confirmed that the male leopard whose age is estimated to be around 3 to 4 years old was healthy and had no injuries. It has also been confirmed that it was a resident leopard from Aarey colony and since the industrial unit was abandoned it had become a perfect location for it to move in and out.

The big cat was first spotted in the wee hours of Saturday by residents of Halimabai Chawl located close to the Marol Moroshi bus depot after which they alerted the forest department.

As per forest officials themselves this was one of the trickiest operation in recent times as the leopard was coming into a busy and congested area. “Both the team were deployed almost round the clock and camera traps were set up from first day itself. On Wednesday we set up two trap cages after studying the movement of leopard and finally at around 3am it walked into the trap cage set up inside the unit,” informed Dr Jitendra Ramgaonkar, Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF), Thane.

Another senior forest official said that despite the location being extremely busy the local residents from the chawl co-operated and helped keep this a hush-hush operation. “Fortunately the unit had gates and hence a lot of people did not know what was going on inside otherwise the crowds could have complicated things as if disturbed the leopard would have not come out,” said a forest staff.

Mayur Kamath Wildlife Warden, Mumbai suburbs who was part of the operation said that the most crucial part was understanding the movement of the leopard to understand where was it coming from and how was it entering the unit. “After it was spotted on Saturday we carried out a detailed recce of the entire area including the chawl as well as the unit. Camera traps were set up on Saturday and it was on Sunday that we got the first image confirming its presence and by Tuesday we understood that it was using this unit to reside as there was no disturbance and plenty of food all around,” he said adding that the trap cages were set with baits and the leopard walked into it.  

As per forest department the leopard was released on Thursday in its natural habitat.

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