Couple locks up leopard after it sneaks into their house in Jigani, animal rescued after 5-hour op

BENGALURU: Displaying great presence of mind, a couple locked up a leopard, which had entered their house, inside and quickly got out of the building to inform the Forest Department. After much drama, the leopard was tranquilised after a five-hour operation and taken to the Bannerghatta Biological Park.

The incident occurred at at Kuntlu Reddy Layout in Jigani on the outskirts of the city. In shocking CCTV footage, the leopard can be seen brushing past a schoolboy, who was standing with another older boy and getting ready to leave for school, before it entered the house.

The leopard had been moving around the building, belonging to one Manjunath, all through the night. When the tenant Venkatesh stepped out around 8 am on Thursday, the leopard sneaked inside the house. Only his wife Venkatalakshmi was in the house while their son Nikhil was away.

The couple somehow managed to get out of the house and locked the leopard inside. They then informed the Forest Department. As news spread, huge crowds assembled all around the house and on rooftops.

The Forest Deparment staff and police, who arrived at the scene, placed a cage at the door of the house and also spread nets around. However, the leopard had sneaked under a cot and was not visible for long. After veterinarian Dr Kiran and team arrived from the Bannerghatta Biological Park, the Forest staff requisitioned another cage. Finally, after five hours, the leopard, which was hiding under a cot, was tranquilised, transferred into a cage and taken to Bannerghatta Biological Park.

Assistant Conservator of Forests, Bengaluru south division, Ganesh said, “We started the operation to capture the leopard immediately upon receiving information. The leopard had strayed about 1.5 km into human habitation and it is surprising that it hid itself in the house when people were present. The couple show presence of mind in locking up the leopard inside and it was a challenging task for us to capture it”.

Further, he said, “We located the leopard in a small room with the help of mobile cameras and the veterinarian was able to sedate it with two darts. The female leopard is about 6-7 years old and its health will be reviewed at the BBP”.

Venkatesh said, “We had kept a sheet of plywood at the door and the leopard knocked it down and entered the house. I was watching TV while my wife was drinking milk sitting on the floor. As soon as it entered a room, we locked the house and got out”.