Leopard rescued from Gurgaon village released into the Aravallis

On Friday evening, the leopard was first spotted in the basement of a house by some construction labourers.

The two year old male leopard that was rescued from Gurgaon’s Badshahpur area yesterday evening was released back into the wild at midnight last night. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/L9KbsRR3xv

— Sakshi Dayal (@sakshi_dayal) August 10, 2019

Before it could be rescued, the animal jumped the boundary wall of the home and entered the verandah of a neighbouring house. The house owner said it hid behind a bush, from where his wife, mistaking the leopard for a monkey, tried to chase it away. He, however, prevented any adverse incident by alerting her that it was a leopard, before she got too close.

“I asked everyone in my family to go into the house and lock the door. Many residents gathered outside our gate and tried have a look at it. I asked them to leave it alone and called the police, who in turn alerted the forest department,” said Rajendra Yadav, the owner of the establishment.

While attempts were being made to rescue the leopard, Yadav said it jumped onto his house’s boundary wall, and from there onto the terrace.

“My nephew was there at the time, and the animal attacked him. He got some scratches, but managed to defend himself with a stick,” said Yadav.

Residents said the leopard then jumped back onto the road, and ran into a salon. The owner of the business and two of his clients who were inside at the time fled on seeing the animal, but closed the shutter behind them. It was from here that the leopard was finally rescued around 5.30 pm, over two hours after it was first spotted.