In Islamabad yesterday, it took the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board and Capital Development Authority more than five hours to apprehend a leopard that may have ran loose from a safari park and became “trapped” in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) amongst alarmed inhabitants. By 4 o’clock, videos of the big wild cat roaming the housing society began to circulate on social media. These videos showed the scared leopard attempting to exit the area but instead racing into buildings and scaling walls. The hashtag “leopard” has also been trending on Twitter in Pakistan. Here have a look.

 

A leopard bit a security guard on the back, the DHA security reported to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Department around 4:20 p.m. Rescue 1122 had already arrived on the scene when the IWMB crew arrived at the housing development, but Rina Saeed Khan of the IWMB reported that it had not succeeded in cordoning off the area. She reported that despite warnings from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) employees to stay inside, many TikTokers had congregated dangerously near to the leopard. According to Ms. Khan, “The leopard attacked because it felt cornered.” 

The leopard was also witnessed assaulting a volunteer for the IWMB twice. Throughout the entire incident that led to the wild cat’s capture, three people—two of them IWMB employees—were injured. In a another video, a man who appeared to be a private security guard fired at the leopard without caring for the wellbeing of the crowd that had gathered there. The relevant authorities, however, disputed this.

Image Source: Twitter

The IWMB tried unsuccessfully to lure the animal into a cage and confine it in a confined area with the assistance of the volunteers and personnel there. At around 10 p.m., the IWMB had to sedate the animal using a tranquillizer. According to Rina Saeed Khan, the director of the wildlife board, the leopard would be put at a rescue facility in the Rescue Center, which formerly served as the home of the Islamabad zoo. The IWMB chief was in contact with the commissioner at the time when this news was published. The news has been going viral since yesterday, here are some live videos from the incidents and reactions from the public.

As a result of human expansion into their habitat, common leopards have affected life in settlements before. In the Saidpur model village in Margalla Hills, leopards broke into multiple homes in November of last year, causing panic. IWMB stated that although the locals claimed to have seen four leopards, leopards were extremely territorial and did not forage in packs like a pride of lions.

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