leopard

People gather outside Marol building where leopard was sighted.

Marol

Cub was found under stairwell

Searching for the animal (Photos by Nilesh Wairkar)

The tranquillised leopard being rescued

Cub found below staircase, taking shelter behind a wooden plank; residents and public safe.Umesh Mathpati was stepping out of the lift. He was on the ground floor of the Woodland Crest building in Andheri after having breakfast at his employers’ home when his friend Sai Bhosikar yelled out for him. He ran towards Bhosikar, only to be told that had he not moved away from the lift, he may have been attacked by aMathpati thought this was an April Fool prank – the animal that walked past behind him was surely a dog. Then both men, who work as drivers for the Sambutwad Family, which lives on the fifth floor of the building, checked the space below the staircase and found a baby leopard there.Bhosikar had seen the animal leap into Woodland Crest from the neighbouring Woodland Avenue building. They later came to know that the guard in the other building found the leopard sleeping beneath a car and tried to shoo it away by hitting it with a stick.They alerted their employers immediately, and Pramod Sambutwad called forest officials and local police. His brother, Venkatesh Sambutwad, asked the guard to call all the flats – 15 in total – in the sevenstorey building and tell the occupants to stay in and lock the doors.Still others thought it was a prank. But their amusement turned to fear in a matter of minutes when they saw uniformed personnel stream into the complex.Officials from the forest department, police forces and fire brigade conducted the subsequent rescue operation that lasted three hours, even as large crowds gathered on the narrow road outside the building in Vijay Nagar, nearNaka.“When the police and forest officials came, they asked the other residents to stay inside,” said Bhosikar. “They learned the layout of the building from the two of us and the two guards, and put up nets everywhere to prevent the animal from escaping. When we went back to check under the staircase, we could not see the leopard, which scared the officials.”Forest officials then went to the terrace, said Mathpati. “They installed ladders, checking each floor of the building. It took them more than an hour to inspect all the floors. We later found the cub below the same staircase, taking shelter behind a wooden plank,” he said.“We had to take all precautions to ensure that there were no casualties within the housing society or outside,” said Jjitendra Ramgaokar, deputy conservator of forests, Thane Range. “As soon as we found the leopard, we tranquillised him and rescued him.”Dr Shailesh Pethe, veterinary official from Sanjay Gandhi National Park , said the cub was between one and two years old.Kasturben Shah, a building resident, said although she had locked the door, she was still scared. “I was worried that the wooden door would not be much of a protection against the leopard. The thought of what would happen to my grandchildren – five year old Rivaan and his baby sister, who is just 20 days old – if the leopard entered our apartment...” she said.Finance professional Swapnil Sharma, another resident, was among those who thought it was a prank. “I was getting ready for work and thought of it as an unnecessary disturbance. But as it turned out, we were told to stay indoors until the leopard was captured. All entry points to the building were sealed and the lifts were closed,” he said.