A leopard which was spotted at a popular mall and at the basement of a hotel in Thane, Maharashtra, Wednesday morning, has been caught by forest officials after six hours of searching, said an official.
A leopard which was spotted at a popular mall and at the basement of a hotel in Thane, Maharashtra, Wednesday morning, has been caught by forest officials after six hours of searching, said an official.
The big cat was caught from the basement of Hotel Satkar Residency, Pokhran Road, around 11.50 am, PTI quoted a senior forest official as saying. Before being taken away, the leopard was tranquilised and will be released in Sanjay Gandhi National Park after examination, officials said.
The leopard was first seen in the parking area of Korum Mall in the wee hours of the morning at around 5.30 am, following which few people alerted police and forest officials who conducted a search in the mall for about three hours, PTI quoted Thane civic body’s regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam as saying.
However, failing to capture the big cat, they concluded the leopard must have escaped the premises of the mall, located at Samata Nagar by jumping the compound wall, Kadam said.
The big cat was caught from the basement of Hotel Satkar Residency, Pokhran Road, around 11.50 am, PTI quoted a senior forest official as saying. Before being taken away, the leopard was tranquilised and will be released in Sanjay Gandhi National Park after examination, officials said.
The leopard was first seen in the parking area of Korum Mall in the wee hours of the morning at around 5.30 am, following which few people alerted police and forest officials who conducted a search in the mall for about three hours, PTI quoted Thane civic body’s regional disaster management cell chief Santosh Kadam as saying.
However, failing to capture the big cat, they concluded the leopard must have escaped the premises of the mall, located at Samata Nagar by jumping the compound wall, Kadam said.