Gandhinagar: Leopard sneaks into Secretariat complex, caught later

Secretariat complex, or Sachivalay, houses offices of the chief minister, chief secretary, all the ministers in the state cabinet and top bureaucrats apart from the building of Gujarat Assembly.

According to officials of Forest & Environment Department, the CCTV surveillance system had caught the leopard sneaking into the complex from Gate No. 7 of the Secretariat at around 2 am. As soon as the development came to the knowledge of the authorities, entry inside the complex was prohibited for all and Forest teams were called in to trace the leopard. A combing operation was launched by around 400 officials of the Forest and Police departments.

As entry into the complex was prohibited for all, huge number of staff of the state government and Gujarat Assembly remained outside the complex. Eventually, at around 12.30 pm the complex was opened for regular work.

Before this, Additional Chief Secretary (Forest & Environment) Rajiv Kumar Gupta addressed the media. “We have been able to track the movement of the animal in all the CCTV cameras. And we have ensured that the animal no longer stays within the Sachivalay campus. Our first priority was to sanitise the entire campus. We put around 400 people – 200 people from the Forest Department and 200 from the Police Department. Commando teams, tranquiliser guns and cages were mobilised and we first ensured that the Sachivalay is searched and certify that the animal no longer stays here,” Gupta said.

“We have ensured that the animal has moved out of the Sachivalay. So, now our second priority would be to locate the animal in a few square kilometers of Gandhinagar. There are ravines, there are small forests and there are lot of bushes here. So, around 8-10 teams of Forest Department with all the paraphernalia have moved out to locate, search and catch the animal,” Gupta added. He refused to give out details of time or location of the leopard’s exit from the campus. When asked, Gupta said, “I cannot divulge more details for obvious reasons.”

According to Gupta, this was not for the first time that a leopard was spotted in the state capital. “In this entire area of 50 square kilometer consisting of four districts, there are around a dozen leopards. It is not for the first time that a leopard has been located in Gandhinagar. A few years ago, a leopard was located right in the middle of Gandhinagar and it was caught,” Gupta said.

He, however, added that it was for the first time that a leopard managed to enter inside the Sachivalay complex.

A team of Forest department later traced the leopard near a nursery around Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar. Eventually, more teams were brought in to the area and efforts were made to cover the animal and get it tranquilised.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest A K Saxena, who was supervising the rescue operation, said that the leopard is four-years-old and it was captured from an area located between Puneet Van and Raj Bhavan.

Saxena said that the team of forest officials had formed a human chain and covered the animal towards a culvert where it was tranquilised.“One tranquiliser hit the leopard after which it was captured and taken to GEER Foundation. It has gained consciousness and after observing it for sometime, further decision will be taken,” Saxena added.
According to Saxena, experts from four districts, including Gir Sanctuary of Junagadh, were brought in to capture the animal.