Seven people were wounded after a leopard entered a residential area in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district on Wednesday morning. One person is in critical condition, and he is undergoing treatment at the ICU ward of a local hospital, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The wild cat was later caught by officials from the Transit Treatment Centre (TTC) in Seminary Hills after a difficult operation.

The TTC team was alerted by distressed villagers of the Shiv Nagar area of Pardi around 6:15 am. The leopard apparently entered the locality during the night and, after sunrise, tried to escape. While looking for a way out, it attacked several people. The animal was later seen at a narrow spot near a house where a cooler was stored, IE reported citing a senior forest department official.

Because the area was crowded and visibility was poor, tranquillising the leopard was difficult. The team had to fire two darts before the wildcat could be sedated and captured. During the rescue operation, the leopard attacked TTC officials, leaving three of them badly injured. To make things worse, the vehicle meant to transport the sedated leopard broke down midway. The officials had to rent a smaller vehicle to complete the transport.

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The leopard has been shifted to TTC, where it is undergoing treatment and observation.

Officials complain of shortage of funds, safety gears

Speaking anonymously to IE, a senior TTC official expressed concern about the lack of funds and safety gear for rescue officials. “Our rescue team mainly consists of contract workers who work on lower salaries and have no insurance. If something happens to them, who will take responsibility? Today, three team members were attacked,” he said.

He stated that the forest division in Nagpur is severy underfunded. “We apply for regular expenses every year in March or April, but large funds are sanctioned for cities that don’t even have forests. Our vehicles are due for servicing, and we don’t even have proper uniforms or safety shields. During today’s rescue, we had to use police shields,” he added.

Despite these challenges, he said the forest department continued to respond to distress calls. “Our team is committed and strong, but at the very least, we need basic protective gear and proper facilities to carry out these dangerous rescue operations safely.”

“If these attacks happen in cities like Mumbai, Pune, and Nashik, this becomes a topic of concern for the Government, but Nagpur has been largely neglected, even when there is wildlife around the city,” he said.

Forest minister Ganesh Naik visits injured residents

Ganesh Naik, the Forest Minister, visited the injured residents and told the media that they were all out of danger.

“I hope such attacks don’t happen in future. Hence, our efforts are focused on keeping leopards confined to forests. But if a leopard wanders into the city and such an unfortunate event happens, the forest department will do its job to alert the residents. We have made such arrangements. The entire state of Maharashtra is affected by leopard attacks. We are thinking along these lines and working to curb the attacks,” he said.

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“Permission has been granted to sterilise leopards, but only in a limited number and for a very short period. Within six months, we will know whether it is successful or not. After that, we will seek permission from the Central Government’s forest ministry to carry it out on a large scale, and I am confident that it will succeed,” Naik added.

A day earlier, Naik had announced a plan to reduce leopard attacks in the area. Speaking at the winter session of the legislature in Nagpur, he said that goats would be released in forest areas so leopards wouldn’t stray into human settlements looking for prey.