Leopard enters girls’ hostel in Guwahati; tranquilized and sent to state zoo

There was panic among residents of a locality in the middle of Guwahati for several hours on Monday morning after an adult leopard entered a girls’ hostel.

It took forest officials more than three hours to tranquilize the animal, which was trapped under a cane sofa placed in the verandah of the ground floor of the hostel where the owner stays.

“The animal must have entered the premises in the wee hours as seen in CCTV camera footage. It entered the grilled verandah and got trapped under a sofa,” said Mousumi Bora, owner of Milestone paying guest hostel for girls located at Hengerabari area of the city.

“I was the one to see it first. I mistook it for a piece of cloth and nearly grabbed its tail before realizing what it is. We locked ourselves in and informed forest officials. There are 15 girls in the hostel at present and they also locked themselves in their rooms immediately,” she added.

It took forest and police officials a lot of effort to tranquilize the animal as they didn’t have a clear view of it. But when they finally managed to hit it with a tranquilizer shot, the leopard left the spot and entered a nearby house.

Forest officials finally managed to put the tranquilized animal in a cage and shift it to the Assam state zoo at about 11 am.

“Since the animal is sedated, it will be kept in the zoo till it wakes up. We will check if it has sustained any injuries. A microchip will be inserted into the animal and it will be released in a forest later,” said Tejas Mariswamy, divisional forest officer, Assam state zoo.

As Guwahati is surrounded by forest and hills, leopards are frequently seen in the city and sometimes enter houses. In August this year, a 6-year-old boy was killed by a leopard in the city and in June local residents had killed and paraded a leopard.