Viral Video: Leopard Strays Inside Mercedes-Benz Factory in Pune, Plant Operations Halted For 6 Hours
Pune: In an unusual incident, a leopard strolled inside the sprawling Mercedes Benz factory in Pune, causing the plant to be partially evacuated and operations halted for nearly 6 hours, reported news agencies on Monday. The big cat was rescued after long and hard efforts of the Wildlife SOS team.
Workers at the Chakan plant got rattled on noticing an adult leopard prowling on the luxury car manufacturing factory premises around dawn today and sounded an alarm. After the initial panic subsided, a team of Maharashtra Forest Department arrived and took charge of the situation on the 100-acre production facility.
Surprise visitor at @MercedesBenzInd car plant today
Forest dept officials are trying to rescue the Leopard. All employees told to go home, no production or dispatches today pic.twitter.com/PelLyiXSKA— Sirish Chandran (@SirishChandran) March 21, 2022
A Wildlife SOS Team from the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre was called in with reinforcements and veterinarians to help trap and rescue the big cat. Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the workers in the immediate vicinity were evacuated to a safe spot on the advice of the local police.
In the operation lasting around six hours, the teams comprising Dr Shubham Patil and Dr Nikhil Bangar located the leopard hidden on the shop floor of one of the factory sheds and then secured the area. The two teams successfully managed to lure and trap the distressed feline, shot a tranquiliser dart from a safe distance and numbed it before it was captured around 11.30 a.m, nearly 6 hours after it was sighted.
MFD Range Forest Officer Yogesh Mahajan said that the leopard was shifted to a special transportation cage and taken to a facility in Junnar where it continues to remain under medical observation before release into the wild. Dr Bangar, the Wildlife Veterinary Officer with the Wildlife SOS, said the leopard is a male, aged around 2-3 years.
(With IANS inputs)