Nearly 24 hours after a leopard fled from the main road on the outskirts of Hyderabad, it remains elusive even as authorities continue their search operations.
"We haven't traced it yet. Search operations are still underway in the area where it was spotted," Nehru Zoological Park curator N Kshitija told TNM on Friday morning.
Officials are using drone cameras and going through footage from 26 CCTV cameras in the area to spot the wild cat.
The leopard, which appeared to be injured or sick, was seen lying beside the median of a Road Under Bridge (RUB) in Hyderabad's Mailardevpally area. The leopard was last seen entering a private farm on the Shamshabad Road, but is yet to be spotted since then.
Senior officials of the Forest Department were monitoring the situation.
After receiving information on Thursday morning from locals about the animal, police and forest officials rushed to the spot along with a rescue team of the city-based Nehru Zoological Park.
Earlier in the day, several passersby on the road captured photos and videos of the leopard on their mobile phones, which was widely circulated on social media. A man who tried to approach the big cat and went too close to it was attacked and shifted to a local hospital.
Police stopped vehicular traffic from both sides.
Meanwhile, in another incident, forest officials on Thursday rescued an Asian Palm Civet, which had strayed into the city's Golconda area. A team of forest personnel captured the animal, which had entered Fateh Darwaza on Wednesday night, causing fear among locals, who thought it was a black panther.
Forest officials said that the civet was shifted to Nehru Zoological Park. They plan to leave it in the forest after necessary treatment.