Six-year-old male feline had wandered into Maruti’s Manesar plant early Thursday

A 35-hour-long operation involving more than 100 police personnel, including Haryana Police commandos, around a dozen Forest Department officials and staff from Maruti Suzuki Limited’s Manesar plant, ended with the successful rescue of a leopard from the premises here on Friday afternoon.

The six-year-old male feline weighing around 60 kg — one of the largest leopards to be rescued by the Haryana Forest Department in recent times — was tranquillised around 2 p.m., putting an end to the drama of the past two days.

Almost 12 hours after the nine-foot-long leopard was first spotted by a security guard near the company’s Gate No. 2 around 3.30 a.m. on Thursday, it was confined to the Engine Unit, which is spread across five acres.

Concerted effort

Forest Department officials had cordoned off the area and placed two cages with live baits in it, hoping to lure the animal. The leopard was caught on CCTV camera roaming around the cage at 8 p.m. It, however, did not enter the cage, forcing rescue teams to rethink their strategy on Friday morning.

“Helped by the Haryana Police’s Quick Response Team commandos, we managed to push the animal into a smaller area of around two acres on Friday. The aim was to place two more cages with raw meat inside, but before we could do this the animal was spotted hiding under a platform below a machine. Since the feline was visible, we took the opportunity to tranquillise him,” said Conservator of Forests, South Circle, Vinod Kumar.

The platform was then cut and the unconscious animal was shifted to a cage.

Mr. Kumar added that the animal, which is currently under observation, will be introduced back into the wild soon.

The incident had partially hit the company's production and the morning shift on Thursday had to be suspended.