Leopard that caused havoc was starved

PUNE: The leopard that struck terror in the industrial township of Nigdi and injured six persons before succumbing to death last evening, was suffering from starvation, a zoo official said on Wednesday.

"The wild cat suffered from liver infection and was starved when it appeared in Nigde from the nearby forest in the Maval region", Neelamkumar Khaire, Director, Rajiv Gandhi Zoological park, told news agency after the postmortem of the leopard.

"The intestines were empty and a little grass was found in the stomach pointing to starvation," the official added.

Dogs barking in strange accent had caught the attention of a watchman early morning yesterday, who spotted the big cat sitting quietly behind a car in the Akurdi area, which houses the now closed Bajaj Auto plant.

Panic enveloped the area for six hours, triggering a chaotic situation as local residents teamed up with municipal zoo officials to trap the animal that ran helter-skelter, eyewitnesses and police said.

The mob chase infuriated the leopard as he struck back inflicting minor injuries to six people, including a municipal employee who threw himself on the animal to pin it down.

The leopard was then injected with a dose of tranquiliser. It died in transit while being transported to the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological park at Katraj on the outskirts of the city.