Leopard captured in abandoned Srinagar house five days after it was first sighted

Srinagar: The Wildlife Department has finally succeeded in capturing the leopard sighted in Srinagar’s Baghi Mehtab area on December 29.

Speaking to The Kashmir Monitor, Wildlife Warden, Srinagar, Altaf Hussain, said their team has been on the ground since December 29 and were finally able to locate and tranquilize the animal in the same area.

“The animal had taken refuge in the lawn of an abandoned house. It was a difficult operation since the area where the leopard was first sighted is a huge one. But thankfully we were able to find and capture and tranquilize the animal,” he said.

“Our team including Dr Omar did a great job,” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Wildlife Department had issued an advisory to people living in Baghi Mehtab and adjacent areas not to venture out till the next morning as the leopard sighted in the locality was yet to be caught.

Earlier in the day, a leopard, was seen roaming in the Baghi-Mehtab area frightening the entire locality even as more and more cases of human-animal conflict are coming to the fore.

Video of the leopard jumping fences in the residential colony went viral on social media.

The news about the leopard roaming in the colony soon went viral and even people of the adjoining localities said they were terrified and stopped moving out of their houses.