In the wee hours of Monday morning, a leopard was spotted sleeping on top of the terrace of a house at Patel road in Shadnagar, some 50 km away from Hyderabad city limits. The locals without waking up the big cat duly contacted the Shadnagar police station who in turn alerted forest department officials to take the leopard away.
The leopard, a male approximately 5 to 6 years old was found relaxing on top of Manne Vijay Kumar’s residence. The presence of the leopard, however, caused panic among local residents.
Visuals of the cat relaxing on top of the roof and its eventual rescue have since then gone viral on social media."Once it got warm the leopard took the stairs and decided to rest under the stairs. We shot the leopard with tranquilisers. We then took him down the staircase and transported him to the Nehru Zoological park in Hyderabad,” said a consultant for the Forest Department, "When it was under the staircase it was tranquilised,” said the officer. Visuals show the sleeping leopard being taken in a stretcher.
A police constable was mildly injured by the leopard, confirmed the consultant. ”When the dart was shot the leopard jumped, a police constable was injured but nothing serious,” he added.
The consultant said Shadnagar and its surrounding areas are known habitats for leopards. However, he found the entry of the cat into residential neighbourhoods as unusual. “The leopards do keep moving in these areas but coming into habitation and staying on the rooftop of the house is not very usual. It was early morning, perhaps the cat wanted to avoid detection and must have thought of the rooftop as a safe place. As it got warmer under the sun, the cat moved under the stairs as it was cool and had shade.”
Forest department officials say it's unusual for #leopards to rest on rooftops #Hyderabad pic.twitter.com/HgGwXBiJsz
— Mithun MK (@KalkiSpeaks) January 20, 2020