While here in the West car plants usually shut down their operations for a few days due to parts shortage or union talks, in India a factory was closed after a wild leopard was spotted on CCTV.
The animal was seen last Thursday by the guards at Maruti Suzuki’s facility in Manesar, 24 miles (39km) from the capital, New Delhi, reports TheGuardian, and the decision was taken on the spot, to avoid human injury or death.
However, what should have been an easy capture turned into a 36-hour hunt inside the plant, during which the local police used raw meat and even live goats to lure it out. Despite the huge operation, the leopard remained hidden somewhere in the factory, but it eventually returned to the same spot where it was first seen, where it was tranquilized.
“The wildlife team was successful in tranquilizing the leopard late afternoon. The animal has been removed from the factory, and after medical examination will be released in the wild”, police deputy commissioner of Manesar, Ashok Bakshi, told AFP. “No one was injured in the operation, and the area has been declared safe.”
Because of the constantly shrinking forest habitats and urban expansion, human and wildlife interactions are very common in India. It’s estimated that 1,144 people had been killed from April 2014 to May 2017 by animals, which represents an average of more than one a day.
On the other hand, a wild leopard is killed each day on average in India where their population is approximated at 12,000 to 14,000.