February 8, 2016
BENGALURU: A leopard entered Vibgyor School at Marathahalli on the outskirts of
Bengaluru creating panic among the people and injuring six, on Sunday, before it
was captured.
It is seen entering the premises at 4 am in CCTV camera. The police were informed at 7 am when it was spotted once and the police in turn alerted the Department of Forest. Equipped with two cages to trap the feline, two teams of forest officials started searching the premises of the school at 10 am. But it could be spotted only at 4 pm and the chase started. It was at the time in the woods nearby.
The leopard emerged at 6.30 pm. The tense drama took a violent turn when forest
officials shot the leopard with tranquilliser darts. It ran into the school and
attacked the officials.
When the chase started at the school, the leopard scaled a fence and attacked
wildlife expert Sanjay Gubbi from behind, clawing and biting him.
Eventually, the drugged animal collapsed. It was then taken out of the school in a
net. The feline was brought to Bannerghatt Biological Park, a wildlife centre, at 8.30 pm.
The CCTV camera footage shows the big cat coming through the corridors of the
school and entering the kitchen in the morning.
“It was an 8-year-old full-grown male leopard. It may have strayed from the open
forests near Whitefield, and once strayed, it could not go back,” Ravi Ralf,
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), told newsmen.
Bengalore is a booming metro city but leopards live in the wild around. There have
been several incidents in the past when the wild animal strayed into the city and
created scare.
India has a leopard population of of 12,000 and 14,000.