Two leopards, a male and a female, strayed into two residential localities in Nashik city on Friday before being rescued by the forest department officials.
Officials claimed that Nashik city has seen two big cats in localities on the same day for the first time.
It took almost four hours for the forest teams to tranquilise and rescue the cats
According to officials, the rescued animals have been brought to the forest department’s nursery facility, and are in stable condition.
The forest department got a call from locals that two leopards were sighted wandering in two different residential areas - Sawatanagar in Sidco and Govindnagar in Bombay Naka.
The first leopard, later found to be male, was sighted roaming at Sawatanagar area at around 7:30 am, while the female cat was seen around 5:30 am at Govindnagar.
The forest department with the help of a police force cordoned off the Sawatanagar area and carried out the first rescue with the help of RESQ Charitable Trust.
Nachiket Utpat, communication officer, RESQ Charitable Trust, said, “The leopard was rescued at around 10:30 am from the backyard of a house in the area. The dart was shot by a forest official, and the animal was rescued after around 10 minutes. While this operation was going on, we got an alert of sighting another leopard in Bombay Naka area. A second team rushed to the area along with the forest officials. The owner of the house saw the animal enter a room and he locked it from outside. A hole was dug in one of the room walls for the official to shoot a dart, and the second leopard was also rescued. Both operations took at least two hours each.”
{{/usCountry}}Nachiket Utpat, communication officer, RESQ Charitable Trust, said, “The leopard was rescued at around 10:30 am from the backyard of a house in the area. The dart was shot by a forest official, and the animal was rescued after around 10 minutes. While this operation was going on, we got an alert of sighting another leopard in Bombay Naka area. A second team rushed to the area along with the forest officials. The owner of the house saw the animal enter a room and he locked it from outside. A hole was dug in one of the room walls for the official to shoot a dart, and the second leopard was also rescued. Both operations took at least two hours each.”
{{/usCountry}}The decision to release or relocate the two animals will be taken by the forest department, said Utpat.