Uttarakhand Man Has Surprise Visitor for 20 Hours: A Leopard

Ghansali, Uttarakhand: A surprise visitor to a house in the centre of Uttarakhand's Ghansali town had the owner running to the kitchen, locking himself in and screaming for help. Forest officials took 20 hours to tranquilise the guest, a leopard, and relocate him to the Bhilangna forest range.

Ankit Pal, the resident of the house which received the visit from the two-year-old leopard, says he first sensed the animal under his bed. "I was inside the room and he was under the bed. I thought it was a dog and I tried to chase him away. He then came out and came to attack me," he said.

A special team had to be brought in from Chakrata, more than 200 km away, to tranquilise the leopard. It took 20 hours from the time the leopard was spotted till the time he was tranquilised and trucked out in a cage.

"He seems to have followed a dog into the house. We have tranquilised him and are taking him away in a cage. We will be releasing him back into the wild," said forest officer Shankar Mendola.

Uttarakhand is home to nearly a quarter of India's leopard population, and the hill state has been witnessing a rise in the number of desperate leopards straying into human settlements. Among India's four big cats, leopards rely on stealth attacks to bring down prey.
 

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