E-Paper
Big cat in the net, sent to Lucknow
THE LEOPARD, which had sneaked into the army sub area station canteen last evening was finally caught and dispatched to Lucknow in a cage. A team of doctors and experts from Lucknow, which arrived after Sunday midnight, managed to immobilize the predator with the help of a tranquilising gun in the wee hours of Monday morning. Throughout the night army and police personnel maintained a strict vigil at the station canteen gate and were busy making preparations to trap the leopard .
THE LEOPARD, which had sneaked into the army sub area station canteen last evening was finally caught and dispatched to Lucknow in a cage.
A team of doctors and experts from Lucknow, which arrived after Sunday midnight, managed to immobilize the predator with the help of a tranquilising gun in the wee hours of Monday morning. Throughout the night army and police personnel maintained a strict vigil at the station canteen gate and were busy making preparations to trap the leopard in case it made a second attempt to escape after jumping over a low wall. In a bid to seal this escape route, army men had put a net over the wall to trap the predator in case he tries to run again.
Meanwhile a cage also arrived here from Mirzapur to carry the animal to Lucknow after it was caught. What has left the army and the civil authority flummoxed is the manner in which the predator arrived inside the station canteen at a time when the canteen staff was busy working. To their horror the canteen workers all of a sudden found themselves face to face with the big cat. Many of them could not speak a word but retraced their steps to escape through the backdoor.
On its part the predator went berserk on the canteen campus and after seeing its image’s reflection in the glass wall of the gift emporium broke through it.
Inside, he caused quite a commotion by moving among the things but later preferred to sit in a corner hiding himself from the people who were standing outside the locked gate. Sub area commander Brigadier SS Yadav along with his men reached the spot within minutes of getting the news. SO Cantt Rajesh Singh and chief conservator of forest, Ashwini Kumar also rushed to the spot along with a DFO to supervise the operation.
Meanwhile, army and district authorities got into touch with officials in Lucknow and sought their help in catching the leopard alive. Army jawans maintained vigil with guns ready in case the predator made an attempt to flee.
On the other hand a forest official calmed the scared people by saying the predator was not a man-eater. Leopards usually feed on smaller animals like goats, and small cows on the periphery of villages and keep away from the eyes of human beings. However, it can climb a tree to catch its prey and also hide itself. CCF feels, the leopard could have come from the jungles of MP but locals are not ready to believe this argument. “How could the leopard come all the way through scores of villages cross the Yamuna and remain undetected,” argued locals.
However the possibility that the animal was being smuggled to some place but managed to break free somewhere on the Kanpur Road and thus reached the sub area, cannot be ruled out say officials.
After the big cat was caught, the army and civil administration heaved a sigh of relief.
