Gandhinagar: The leopard that created sensation of sorts by entering Gujarat capital Gandhinagar and even in the secretariat premises has finally been nabbed.

The beast was nabbed from the area behind the Rajbhavan nursery. It was tranquillised and caged. After primary treatment, it would be left in a forest.

According to forest dept, leopard was spotted in Gandhinagar previously in 2009. Punit Vann from where leopard has been captured will remain closed tomorrow for screening. Captured leopard has been kept in Indroda park. It is believed to be from forests of Arvalli/Sabarkantha.

Leopard had entered this capital in the wee hours today and the secretariat, in which it was also seen entering, was opened only in the afternoon after close to four hours long operation.

A massive search operation in the around 1 square km area of the secretariat was conducted involving around 300 to 350 forest and police personnel. The leopard was seen entering in the secretariat at around 130am to 2 am. An SRP jawan Jaswantbhai Vaghela noticed it and informed the authorities.

‘The search operation inside the premises has been completed and it has now been opened. Our first priority was to sanitise it and we did so by making four teams for search of the beast. The whole secretariat campus was distributed in four zones and every nook and corner of the premises was thoroughly searched. The beast is not there,’ the additional chief secretary of Forest, Rajiv Gupta had earlier said adding that the CCTV network has tracked it outside and attempts to cage it were on.

Cages and tranquilizing guns were brought for it. The forest and police teams were spread across the 8 to 10 sq km area.

Later on the basis of location the operation was conducted behind the Rajbhavan nursery and the beast was caged.

The leopard had entered Gandhinagar from anywhere in the 50 sq km forest area close to it where such animals live.

Chetak Commando were also deployed during the search of the beast in various areas adjoining secretariat as precautionary measures. Wildlife experts from Junagadh and Banaskantha and other places were also included in the search and rescue operation.

DeshGujarat