Leopard Sneaks Into Gujarat Sachivalaya, Captured After 12 hours

Lost leopard that ventures into Gujarat Sachivalaya is finally captured.

Leopard seen sneaking into the Gujarat Sachivalaya premises at 2 am on Monday Morning

ANI Screengrab

The green office space of the Gujarat Secretariat saw a wild visitor enter its premises during the wee hours of Monday, 5 November. CCTV footage showed a leopard crawling under the Sachivalaya gate, pressing panic buttons at the forest department.

In no time, a search operation was launched by the forest department to capture the lost feline. After more than 12 hours of an intense combing operation, the leopard was caught by the wildlife personnel.

“We had deployed senior officers along with teams having tranquiliser guns for the operation. The leopard may have lost its way and entered into the premises. We will either catch him or make sure he leaves the complex.”

Rajeev Kumar Gupta, additional chief secretary, Forest Department.

Officials Asked Not To Enter Office

The Secretariat, or Sachivalaya, in the state capital houses the offices of Gujarat chief minister and chief secretary, besides those of other ministers, senior bureaucrats and government departments.

The Sachivalaya is also quite close to a green belt and leopards are known to prowl in a 40 to 50 Sq Km area of Gandhinagar. According to sources in the forest department, the leopard could have come in from Indroda Nature Park, which is spread across 400 hectares.

Earlier in the day, Secretariat employees and officials were asked not to enter the complex, which also houses the Assembly building, till the wild animal is captured. CCTV footage shared by the authorities showed the leopard sneaking into the Sachivalaya complex from beneath a locked gate at around 2 am.

Leopard Spotted Near Raj Bhavan Nursery

Trackers and Forest Department Personnel move the caged leopard out of the Sachivalaya.(Photo: ANI Screen Grab)

Around 200 personnel from the forest department were brought into action to locate the lost leopard.

A team of trackers from the Forest Department formed a human chain to comb the whole Secretariat and the leopard was finally spotted behind the Raj Bhavan Nursery, where it was finally captured and safely transferred to a cage.

Forest Department officials have said that the leopard will be released in the wild.

(With inputs from PTI)