THERMAL imaging drones, trap cages with baits, high-end trap cameras, multiple tranquiliser dart guns, skylift ladders and over 200 people--all of this was deployed to search Sachin, an eight-year-old male leopard which was rescued around 9:15pm on Tuesday, more than 40 hours after it escaped from a cage near the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park in Katraj. The leopard was lodged in a cage in the quarantine area of the Wild Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (WARRC), which is co-located with the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park. Officials said the leopard escaped from the cage sometime between 4am and 5am on Monday. Director of the zoo Rajkumar Jadhav said, "The leopard was brought from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Zoological Park in Hampi as part of an exchange programme and was kept in quarantine. It escaped from its cage by bending the grill above its head and dislodging that grill from the fixture." Around 9am, the staff at the rescue centre found the leopard missing from the cage. They informed the zoo director on phone and through a letter and subsequently, a search and rescue operation was launched. Experts from ResQ Charitable Trust, teams from forest department and fire brigade joined the search and rescue operation from Monday night. Officials from the fire brigade said after they received information about the leopard's escape around 9:15pm on Monday, they deployed multiple skylifts to provide bird's eye view and also used lights from a height to trace the leopard. The first clear sighting of the leopard in the zoo premises was captured in two CCTV cameras around 5am on Tuesday. Later around 10am, the leopard moved towards the lake. Around 5pm, the leopard was again spotted in an area with dense tree cover. Attempts were made at this point to steer the leopard towards one direction using a water hose of the fire brigade, but it was an exercise in futility. "We deployed thermal drones for the search. The leopard has been raised in captivity so there was little chance of it straying away from the zoo premises. All the possible resources and experts were pooled in for the rescue effort. Close to 200 people, including zoo staff, PMC security personnel, fire brigade teams and rescue experts, were part of the operation," said PMC Additional Commissioner Vikas Dhakne. Deputy Director of the zoo Suchitra Suryavanshi said, "Multiple tranquiliser dart guns were deployed. In the afternoon, we readied six trap cages with baits. We also deployed multiple trap cameras. We took efforts to rescue the leopard with least possible risk by trapping it in a cage." "The leopard is used to being fed on a daily basis, but it can survive longer without food.Because of the predominantly nocturnal nature of the animal, it remained in hiding during the day and mostly moved around at night that helped us capture the leopard," said Suryavanshi. After its rescue, the leopard underwent a thorough medical examination. Officials are monitoring the leopard's health and will later decide the future course of action. On Tuesday, the zoo, which permitted visitors till Monday afternoon even as the leopard escaped earlier during the day, remained shut as search and rescue operations continued. Wednesday being a weekly holiday, the zoo will now open for visitors on Thursday.
