A leopard, which had created terror among the residents of Raipur area in Dehradun for the last one month, was finally tranquillised by the forest department officials on Wednesday.
The leopard was caught after it attacked a man at Suman Puri in the Raipur area in the morning. Later, it was shifted to Dehradun Zoo at Malsi for rehabilitation.
“We managed to tranquilise the animal, but it ran away with the dart. But we managed to find it and rehabilitate it at the zoo,” said KP Verma, sub-divisional officer (SDO) Raipur, Mussoorie Forest Division, who led the operation.
Earlier, at 6am, Sumit (24) was coming out of his bathroom when the leopard attacked him. He suffered minor injuries and was admitted to a hospital in Dehradun.
After attacking the man, the leopard ran away and was later seen near Mehta Wedding Point on Raipur Road. The forest department team, already on alert, tranquilised the animal following a six-hour operation. A big crowd had assembled to watch the operation. Some of them also shot videos of the lurking animal.
Aditi, a veterinarian, said that the animal was four-year-old male leopard. Apparently, the leopard had cracked nails, because of which it was unable to hunt.
“Like people have deficiency of calcium or fluoride due to which their nails break, big cats too have similar deficiency. Thankfully, it (leopard) did not kill or attack any animal or human. The attack in the morning was incidental,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“Like people have deficiency of calcium or fluoride due to which their nails break, big cats too have similar deficiency. Thankfully, it (leopard) did not kill or attack any animal or human. The attack in the morning was incidental,” she said.
{{/usCountry}}As the animal is young, the department will observe it for another few months. It is likely that it would be kept at the zoo for lifetime, said officials familiar with the proceedings.