Hunt for leopard that strayed into Gurgaon still on

The forest and wildlife department, that launched a hunt for an injured female leopard in the Aravalli Hills of Manesar and drew a blank, disclosed that the injured cat had made a futile attack on a dog, reports Sanjeev K Ahuja.

The forest and wildlife department, that launched a hunt for an injured female leopard in the Aravalli Hills of Manesar and drew a blank, disclosed on Wednesday that the injured cat had made a futile attack on a dog. The female could have got even dangerous, the officials said.

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An adult female leopard with two cubs had strayed out of the Aravalli Hills in Manesar on the intervening night of Monday and was hit by a speeding heavy duty vehicle on National Highway No. 8 crushing two of her rear legs. The incident occurred when she was trying to cross the fast stretch and was hit by a speeding bus and feinted. The cubs were however safe and unhurt. The injured leopard had managed to sneak back into the forest cover.

Conservator of Forests, R.P. Balwan, said that a massive combing operation was launched in a specified pocket of Arvalli Hills in Manesar on Wednesday to locate the injured female leopard and the cubs but they were untraceable.

“Our major worry is the injured female leopard whom we want to locate to offer her the treatment. We launched fierce combing operation today to locate her but failed. However, one of the witnesses told us that one leopard had tried to kill a dog. However, the scratch mark on the neck of the dog does not fully confirm the attack by the same leopard but we have all options open,” he added.