BENGALURU: Just imagine a leopard walking in through the main door, into the living room, and then to the bedroom and take refuge under the bed...all while you are having your morning tea/coffee. This was the experience of a shocked elderly couple in Kuntala Reddy Layout in Jigani municipal residential area on Thursday morning.
The petrified couple Venkatesh and Venkatalakshmamma, who are tenants in the house, ran out and locked the main door before dialing the local police and forest officials for help.
A forest official said: “Around 6.30-7am, locals sighted the leopard on the road abd threw stones at it to scare it away. The leopard ran towards the human habitation and entered the house as the gates and the door were open.”
The couple staying in the 1-BHK house was seated on the sofa when the leopard walked in.
“We initially thought it was a dog. It started moving towards the bedroom. My wife wanted to scare the animal out when she saw the spotted tail and realised it was a leopard...then we ran out of the house,” Venkatesh told forest department officials.
‘Used pole with phone at one end to locate leopard’
As the news spread, a thousand people gathered near the house to see the leopard and watch the rescue operation. The forest department had to take the help of the local police to control the crowd.
The house has a parking space and a verandah between the gates and the main door, and it seemed the leopard knew the place well as it casually walked inside the house for shelter, the officials said.
A forester said: “Before starting rescue operations, we had to understand the house and confirm that it was a leopard. There were limited windows. We used a long pole with a mobile phone tied to one end to locate the leopard, and scanned it from the bedroom window. We found the leopard under the bed. One of the staffers opened the main door, rushed inside and locked the bedroom door. Then the animal capture net was tightly sealed outside the bedroom door.”
Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) veterinarian Kiran Kumar said twice when the door was opened 2-3 inches to see and dart the animal, it tried to pounce to escape. The third time, the animal was darted, tranquilized and captured.
“We got a call at around 7am. the teams were at the spot by 7.30am, and by 8.30 am, the leopard was captured without injuries to anyone. The animal was taken to BBP for examination. She is a six-year-old healthy female with no injuries. She has been microchipped and released into a conducive wild habitat,” said Ganesh, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Bengaluru south division, who headed the rescue operation.
This area is around 6-7 km away from Bannerghatta National Park, and leopards have been frequently sighted here in the past. In the last one year, forest department officials have captured and rescued seven leopards in several places on Bengaluru’s outskirts.