MP: Attempts continue to rescue leopard that strayed into Chhatarpur residential area on Thursday morning

Forest officials are trying hard to rescue a leopard that strayed into a residential area of Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh. The hunt for the leopard has entered the third day. The big cat was captured on CCTV late Friday night and then again on Saturday afternoon.

A joint team of Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) and Chhatarpur Forest Division have been trying to rescue a leopard that strayed into Madhya Pradesh’s Chattarpur’s residential area on early Thursday morning.

Despite several attempts, the forest teams have not yet been able to rescue the leopard, as rescue operations are underway on the third day. Chhattarpur is barely at a distance of 70 kilometres from the PTR, meaning that the area is already surrounded by jungles which has a fairly decent population of wildlife including leopards and tigers.

Anurag Kumar, District Forest Officer, Chhattarpur, told Asianet News that attempts are on to rescue the leopard. “Chhatarpur is surrounded by forest area, and at the same time, there are hillocks and forest patches in the city as well. The leopard has strayed from the jungles, teams are trying to rescue it, for this, a team from Panna Tiger Reserve has also been called,” said the DFO.

The team that arrived from Panna also tried to tranquillize the big cat; however, they failed at the attempt. “One of the biggest hurdles in our rescue operation is that people are not cooperating with the teams. There have been incidences wherein people were shouting at the animal, and also tried to throw things at it. These are hindrances in a rescue operation. The team that came from Panna to tranquillize it, also could not do so for the same reason.”

So, how are the teams trying to rescue the big cat? To this, DFO Kumar said, “We will either tranquillize it or push it towards the forest areas. The leopard was seen on the outskirts of the city on Friday night. In case if it does not move back to the forest, we will have to tranquillize it and release it in the forest.”

Meanwhile, there have been no casualties reported since the adult leopard, supposedly a male, strayed into the residential area. However, CCTV footage showed that it went after a dog. On Saturday afternoon, the leopard was once again seen at Paradise colony.