Big cat in concrete jungle leaves five injured

Kalyan: Five persons were injured after being attacked by a male leopard, which wandered into a congested area of Kalyan East, entered a chawl and subsequently got trapped in a four-storeyed building

Kalyan: Five persons were injured after being attacked by a male leopard, which wandered into a congested area of Kalyan East, entered a chawl and subsequently got trapped in a four-storeyed building. The incident happened on Thursday around 8.30 am.

HT Image

The animal was cornered inside the four-storeyed Shriram Anugraha building for 10 long hours. Petrified residents stayed locked inside their homes even as they helped the rescue team locate the leopard, which was constantly moving between floors. It was finally tranquilised on the fourth floor at around 6 pm.

Those injured in the incident were Rajiv Pandey, 38, who suffered severe head injuries, Rama Singh, an 85-year-old senior citizen who was attacked outside his room and Manohar Gaikwad, 70, who lived in a chawl behind the building. Gaikwad’s right leg was mauled thrice, leaving him with severe injuries. Dinesh Gupta, who headed the SGNP rescue team, also suffered an injury to his hand while another person from the rescue team, Harshal Salvi, got away with a minor injury on his finger.

“The Thane forest department received information about the leopard entering the building,” Girija Desai, assistant conservator, forest department, Thane, told HT.

“The building is very congested, which delayed rescue operations. We inspected the building to check how we could trap the animal but could not get proper access due to its tricky layout.”

Dr Shailesh Pethe, senior veterinarian, SGNP, said the leopard was extremely aggressive. “It was tough to target it with tranquilising darts, as it kept moving from the staircase and passage,” he said. “We had to try many different methods to scare it so that it could be tranquilised and rescued.”

As the leopard was in Wing B of the building, some rescuers went to the terrace of Wing A to locate its position with the help of drones. Apart from the rescue team comprising eight members of SGNP, around 100 members of the forest department and local police and firemen, residents also helped in tracing the leopard. They banged their doors to scare it, burst firecrackers in the passage area and kept the team informed about its movements.

Kiran Gupta, 32, who lives on the first floor of Wing B, said, “We kept a watch on the leopard through the safety door. It was moving from the second to the third floor. Once, when I tried peeping out through the safety door at 12.30 pm, it leapt at me. We were scared but we wanted the rescue to end soon, and so helped the team in locating the leopard.”

Shriram Anugraha is located on Chinchpada Road, a bustling area with continuous traffic. One of the busiest lanes in Kalyan East, Chinchpada Road has buildings on both sides and is surrounded by chawls.

Wildlife rescuer Suhas Pawar told HT that incidents of leopards entering urban areas had been increasing in the last three years. “Leopards have been spotted in Badlapur and Ulhasnagar as well,” he said. “There should be rescue teams in Kalyan and nearby cities as the rescue takes time.” Pawar added that the Haji Malang forest was very close to areas like Badlapur, Ulhasnagar and Kalyan, and preventive measures needed to be taken to curb such incidents.

Leopard must have walked 17 km

The leopard which ventured into the residential area on Thursday must have walked almost 17 kilometres from the Haji Malang mountains, claimed wildlife rescuers. The forest department is planning to check the CCTV footage of the entire area to trace the movements of the animal.

Wildlife rescuers from the city have for a few years been alerting the forest department about the presence of leopards in the dense Haji Malang forest, which is about 17 km away from the Chinchpada area. They said the leopard could have walked through the Malang Gad road, crossing villages and entering the city area late on Wednesday night.

“We have been telling the forest department that there are leopards in this forest, and we need to protect the area so that leopards are not forced to enter human settlements,” said Pawar. “There is a lot of construction happening along the forest area—hotels and resorts are being built, which is a major reason for leopards venturing out. Earlier too, pug marks of leopards were found in the Haji Malang forest.”