After a five-hour long operation, forest department officials managed to tranquilise and bundle out a leopard that had entered a house in Chandrapur’s Babupeth area on Wednesday morning. The leopard, however, injured two persons.

Coal workers in the Babupeth gathered in hordes as they saw a leopard roaming around, even as some chased it with their pet dogs. In the melee that followed, the bewildered leopard attacked Manindarsingh Teje and Salma Sheikh and then walked into a bathroom, the door of which was immediately locked from outside. Police officials, along with Chandrapur Range Forest Officer Abhay Badkelwar who rushed to the spot, called for a cage and decided to tranquilise the animal. Assistant Conservator of Forest Girish Vasishth successfully carried out the operation after drilling a hole in the bathroom door.

“The door was later opened and the animal taken to the forest in the Mohorli area near Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR). A microchip was introduced inside the animal to identify it if it was found anywhere else in a similar situation. An antidote was given which brought the leopard back to consciousness and was later allowed into the forest,” Badkelwar told The Indian Express.

Babupeth is near the Junona forest adjacent to the city. Forests in Chandrapur district, including TATR, are teeming with tigers and leopards. Though wild cats have been spotted close to the city in the past two years, this is the first time that it entered a house.