Drone fails, SDO dives into bushes to net injured leopard, Jungle Safari team saves life

RAIPUR: An injured leopard that strayed close to a village in Chhattisgarh’s Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve was rescued after a risky operation in which a senior forest officer subdued the animal with a rope net when drone assistance failed. The leopard, found with wire snares embedded in its neck for seven days, is now stable, while forest authorities have launched a crackdown on poaching amid staff shortages and intensified anti-encroachment measures. On Thursday, around 2 pm, forest officials received information from Kokodi village in the Torenga buffer that a leopard was sitting barely a short distance from houses, hidden in thick undergrowth. Assistant conservator and nodal officer of the anti-poaching team, SDO Gopal Kashyap, rushed to the spot and summoned a drone and the anti-poaching unit. Drone footage showed a deep wound on the leopard’s neck, indicating serious injury, and raised fears that the animal, in search of easy prey, could attack villagers or children. Because the leopard was crouched inside dense bushes, the drone could not be used effectively to facilitate capture. With the Jungle Safari rescue team still hours away from their base 170 km away, Kashyap decided to act before dark, went in alone with a rope net, threw it over the leopard and pinned it down, even as the big cat attacked him during the operation. Local villagers and forest staff then helped secure the animal in a cage mounted on the Gajraj rescue vehicle and shift it to the Taurenga rest house, away from the habitation. At about 8 pm, Jungle Safari veterinarian Dr Jai Kishore Jharia, assistant Ramakant and their team reached Taurenga, sedated the leopard, removed two clutch wire snares that had been embedded around its neck for nearly seven days and administered drip and other treatment. Officials said the animal had already killed a dog in Kokodi village and, due to pain and difficulty breathing, was seeking easy prey in the populated area when it was intercepted. Around 4 am, the leopard was transported safely to the Jungle Safari hospital, where its condition is reported to be stable, and it will be released back into the Udanti forests once fully recovered. Forest authorities have registered a wildlife offence case, seized the snares and launched a search for the poachers using a dog squad, spy cameras and confidential inputs. In the last seven days, 19 poachers have been arrested in related cases of sambhar poaching, holding peacocks in captivity and setting forest fires, while over the past three years more than 500 poachers, smugglers and encroachers have been taken into custody and about 750 hectares of encroached forest land freed. The department has announced a secret reward of Rs 5,000–10,000 for information leading to the arrest of those who set such snares, and has released the mobile number of USTR deputy director Varun Jain (7568127875) for tip-offs. Officials pointed out that the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve is operating with only about 35 percent of its sanctioned staff and faces a shortage of vehicles, yet the anti-poaching and field teams remain in action mode across vulnerable areas. Bulldozers will also be deployed against fresh encroachments in poaching-prone zones, the department has indicated. Forest officials credited SDO Kashyap, Dr Jharia and his team, SDOs Jagdish Prasad Darro and Bhopal Singh Rajput, rangers and deputy rangers, the drone and dog squad teams, Gajraj vehicle staff and local villagers for their special role in the high-risk rescue.