Terror reigned in Civil Lines, the area inhabited by the rulers of Rajasthan here, for more than two hours on Thursday, with a prowling leopard from the Jhalana forests straying and running helter-skelter from one bungalow to the other before being tranquilised by the forest rescuers.
The big cat reached the Civil Lines in broad daylight as it was first spotted in a bungalow at lane 6 of Civil Lines around 09:00 am on Thursday. On being noticed, the predator raced into the official residence of the Water Resources Minister Suresh Singh Rawat. The Raj Bhavan and residences of the Chief Minister and the ex-Chief Minister are also in the vicinity.
Panicked by noise and presence of humans, it sped away in the Tiny Blossom Senior Secondary School campus. In the meantime, the police, forest and wildlife officials, along with tranquiliser teams, reached the area. They locked school children in classroom.
From the school campus, the carnivore yet again moved back to lane 6 and entered the same house in which it was spotted at the first instance.
Here, the wildlife rescuers succeeded in tranquilising it around 11:00 am after a two-hour drill.
According to Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and the Chief Wildlife Warden, Shikha Mehra, the shrinking habitat and prey base are pushing leopards into urban human settlements. The government has been taking steps to address the issue of prey-based.
The sighting of strayed leopards in the city’s different areas has become more frequent. Recently, the big cat had strayed into the posh locality of Durgapura about a fortnight back. The animal was trapped in a camera outside the residence of former Lok Sabha MP Ram Charan Bohra.
A week back, a mob of people had beaten up and pushed back into the jungle a female leopard in the Gujjar Ki Ghati in the vicinity of the Jal Mahal. This animal was later found dead at the fringe of the Nahargarh jungle.
In recent months, leopard movements in the capital city have also been reported from Jaisinghpura, the OTS, Jagatpura, the RBI premises, Rambagh Circle, Kho-Nagauriyon, and Vidyadhar Nagar.