Leopard gets trapped inside building in Gudalur, rescue operation ongoing

Forest officials work to safely remove trapped leopard in Gudalur, facing challenges from surrounding residents and media.

The Forest Department is working to safely extricate a leopard that was trapped inside a building at Srimadurai in Gudalur on Saturday.

The forest officials are left with only one option – to tranquillise and relocate the animal as the entire building has become surrounded by local residents and mediapersons.

Officials said that the building, a shed in a farmland, was being used by workers to store equipment and for them to rest. On Saturday, a worker who entered the building noticed the leopard had taken refuge in the building and ran outside, locking the animal inside and informing the Forest Department.

By the time officials and staff reached the area, local residents, videographers as well as mediapersonsl thronged the area and began waiting for the officials to act on trapping the animal.

One conservationist from the Nilgiris, said that it would have been in the animal’s best interests if residents were asked to go home and the area had been cleared before the building was opened for the leopard to return to the forests on its own. “Relocation of such an animal from one landscape to another is always very tricky. Moreover, it is unclear if the leopard is a female or has cubs reliant on it,” officials said.

Veterinarians as well as officials are currently involved in the operation to safely extricate the animal from the building without it or people getting injured in the process.

On late Saturday evening, the leopard was darted with a tranquiliser and boarded onto a cage. It would be released in a forest area in the Nilgiris once its health condition is assessed, officials said.