MARGAO
It was only moments later that realisation dawned on her that a male leopard strayed in the thickly populated locality of Davorlim village, right bordering Margao city, on Friday noon before forest special rescue teams rescued the wild cat.
That the leopard was resting underneath a Duster car in the garage of Rajesh Kharangate, Davorlim, just metres away from the Margao Power house junction came to light when his maid Sheetal nearly touched the wild cat, presuming it a teddy bear. To her shock and surprise, however, she found that what she believed was a teddy bear turned out a leopard and she immediately narrated the episode to Rajesh, who called up his friends and the forest department for action.
Special rescue teams from Bondla, Panaji and Ponda rushed to Davorlim with tranquilizer kits to rescue the leopard. After an over two-hour long operation, wherein the forest officials covered the entire area with a net, the leopard was tranquilized with a dart fired from a blow pipe. The male leopard, aged between 2-4 years, was later lifted to the Bonda zoo for examination.
Margao Range Forest Officer, Siddesh Gawde informed that the forest department had received a call just a day ago from the locality, stating that a leopard was on the prowl. “Forest officials had patrolled the area last night, but could not come across the wild cat. We received information on Friday noon that the leopard was resting under a Duster car and our officials rescued the leopard within two hours,” he said.
Forest officials expressed surprise as to how a leopard could stray in Davorlim, which is close to Margao city, since the village does not form part of the Chandreshwar hill range, the home of leopards and wild cats.
