Pune: The mysterious escape of a leopard from its enclosure at the rescue and rehabilitation centre of Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park at Katraj during the wee hours of Monday has raised questions about alleged mismanagement, misleading claims, and lack of communication.
By around 9:15pm on Tuesday, the male leopard named “Sachin” was captured as the big cat entered a cage kept with food to trap him.
However, with several issues flagged, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) that runs the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park at Katraj indicated that a probe will be launched by Wednesday into the incident.
“The important thing for us was to capture the leopard. Now that the big cat has been captured, a probe will be launched tomorrow into the incident,” said PMC additional commissioner Vikas Dhakane on Tuesday.
According to forest department officials, there were multiple loopholes found during the initial communication from the zoo official about the leopard escape incident.
The first question raised by experts was why the zoo authority needed to bring a leopard from Karnataka which was a new region when there are already ample number of leopards rescued from around Pune. Another question was how the leopard escaped from the enclosure and communication from the zoo authority.
Staff at Katraj Zoo’s rescue and rehabilitation centre, from where the big cat escaped, claimed the leopard broke free after bending iron rods of the cage, which many at the forest department were not ready to buy.
{{/usCountry}}Staff at Katraj Zoo’s rescue and rehabilitation centre, from where the big cat escaped, claimed the leopard broke free after bending iron rods of the cage, which many at the forest department were not ready to buy.
{{/usCountry}}While the incident about the animal’s escape came to light at around 9am on Monday, there was no formal or informal information to the forest department made by the zoo director with PMC official, forest department, police, fire Brigade, or any other authority till evening.
Mahadev Mohite, deputy conservator of forests, said, “The zoo officials after learning of the animal escape should have alerted the forest department, but we did not receive any information until 8 pm on March 4.”
Although it is not a written protocol, the zoo officials could have informed about the incident immediately to the forest, police, and fire department to avoid any further complexity, said Prabhunath Shukla, head, Maharashtra Zoo Authority (MZA). The official confirmed that they did not receive any information till now and it is expected soon.
Rajkumar Jadhav, director, Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park, said, “The situation yesterday was tense, and we were focused on finding the leopard first. Upon delay in capturing, we alerted all departments.”
Meanwhile, the zoo was kept open on Monday when the feline was on the loose. Subsequently, on Tuesday, the facility was closed for visitors to carry out search operation.
There was a major security breach observed during the first day of the leopard search and rescue operation. While the search was going on to find the escaped animal, the zoo facility which generally hosts over 1,000 visitors daily was open to the public. The official from the zoo and PMC cited that there was a wall between the quarantine facility and the zoo. Hence, it was not required to close the Zoo. However, during the search, we restricted entry to snake park for 15 minutes.
As per the forest official, considering the safety element, zoo should have been closed to visitors immediately and people needed to be evacuated immediately.
A retired senior forest official on condition of anonymity said, “The moment any wild animal kept in captivity escapes from the enclosure, the area becomes dangerous, as it not only poses a threat to animals but also to the humans present and the authority must follow the safety norms. Accordingly, zoo officials should have immediately closed the zoo to visitors.”
Delayed response time was another loophole during the operation. When the rescue operation needed to be carried out during the night hours, there was no thermal drone camera available with the zoo authorities or RESQ team. The team said the camera was sent to Nashik for another mission, and it had to be brought from there. It took over 8-9 hours for the camera to arrive in Pune, which caused delay in the rescue operation.