By Resham Beri
It was an eventful day for Wildlife SOS’s Bangalore team after they received a call from the Forest Department of Karnataka about a leopard trapped in a snare in Nelamangala village, 30 kilometers from Bangalore.
The Wildlife SOS team, heade up by Dr. Arun A. Sha, Director, Research and Veterinarian Operations immediately started from the Bannerghata Bear Rescue Facility with his team and reached the location. When he arrived he found a huge crowd gathered around the trapped leopard, who was obviously traumatized.
It was very dangerous for the team to get close to the leopard because he was moving frantically, trying to get out of the snare. So our team decided to sedate him from the vehicle using a tranquilizing gun. Just as the dart was fired, the leopard jumped and released itself from the snare. He then escaped to the maize field where he rested and recovered.
The officers from the Karnataka Forest Department and Wildlife SOS waited for a few hours to ensure that nobody entered the maize field. This was to try and prevent any man-animal conflict situation. Fortunately, the leopard ran into the forest ahead of the maize field during the early hours of the day.
Dr. Arun commented on th eoperation saying, “What people don’t understand is that wild animals tend to get agitated looking at crowds because they are not accustomed to being around humans. If for some reason the rescue had been delayed the situation would have become more dangerous because the leopard would have become more agitated. In situations like this people should stay out of the animals sight and as far away as possible.
