Leopard still at large inside Maruti’s Manesar plant, works halted as rescue operation continues

The Manesar plant, which is located 20 kilometres from Gurgaon, is one of the biggest manufacturing plants of the automobile giant.

Efforts are on to rescue a leopard on Friday morning, a day after it was spotted inside the premises of Maruti Suzuki’s manufacturing plant in Manesar, bringing production to a halt.

A leopard caught on a CCTV camera at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant. (CCTV grab)

The big cat, which was caught on a CCTV camera several times, could not be traced or captured despite a 24-hour combing operation launched by the wildlife department.

The Manesar plant, which is located 20 kilometres from Gurgaon, is one of the biggest manufacturing plants of the automobile giant.

Pugmarks were spotted all over the engine manufacturing unit on Friday morning. (Handout)

The production unit where the unexpected guest was sighted manufactures both petrol and diesel engines of all Maruti vehicles. It’s located next to the unit where cars are assembled.

The production plant spread across 600 acres, on an average manufactures 5,000 petrol and diesel engines per day.

The production has been stopped for over 24 hours now in the plant, which also produces Suzuki two-wheelers. The big cat first showed up on one of the CCTV cameras at around 3am on Thursday.

The entire unit has been cordoned off with 50 policemen guarding the area to avoid any untoward incident, said inspector Narender Yadav, station house officer of the Manesar IMT Police Station.

Workers are, however, allowed to work in other units of the plant.

The plant officials are tight-lipped and refused comment.

The wildlife team which is monitoring the movement of the leopard said that the animal is in a closed surrounding and it is very careful about its action.

Pugmarks were spotted all over the engine manufacturing unit as it was active throughout the night. The animal was also captured by the CCTV cameras more than four times on Friday.

Two goats were kept inside a cage as a bait to capture it. The wildlife department is planning to keep two more cages in the unit and replaced the two goats with new ones. Raw meat will also be placed in the cages to lure the leopard.

“We have seen leopard movement after 12.30am on Friday. It was even attracted towards its bait. However, since it’s in an alien environment, it will take some more time to respond to the rescue tactics,” said conservator of wildlife, south Haryana, Vinod Kumar.

“The animal might be in stress as it is in closed environment for more than 24 hours now. We will wait for the leopard to act”, he added.

The area is close to the Aravalli hills and it is suspected that the big cat could have strayed from the forested area.