Leopard enters sweet shop building in Daman, captured after 10-hour operation

The family members on the first floor were evacuated and those on the second floor were told to lock their main door and windows. The main road in the area was cordoned off.

The forest officials fired a shot using a tranquiliser gun. With no movement of the animal, a forest guard approached the animal, believing it to be unconscious. The leopard attacked him and injured him on the leg. The other team members rescued him and he was shifted to hospital, said a forest department official.

The Daman forest department contacted forest department officials of Valsad, Surat and Dahanu in Maharashtra and sought their help to catch the leopard. The teams arrived at Daman late in the afternoon, and a joint operation was carried out to tranquillise the big cat. Again, the teams fired two shots from different directions. The rescue operation continued till late in the night, and finally, the leopard was successfully tranquilised. The leopard was taken to the forest department office in Daman.

Talking to The Indian Express, Daman Deputy Conservator of Forest Harsh Raj said, “The leopard has been spotted in the nearby areas for the last two days. We have installed two cages at different locations to catch the leopard. The leopard was spotted at Haveli Sweets building in Nani Daman on Tuesday morning. The rescue operation, which started at 11.00 am, ended only at 10.30 pm.”

“The captured male leopard weighs over 60 kilograms and is around 4 years old. The leopard is kept at Vasona safari in Silvassa (Union territory) where doctors are examining it,” the official said.