gurugram a fiveyearold male leopard strayed into a residential colony at ramnagar in palwal on thursday triggering panic among residentsthe big cat was first spotted by a passerby on a vacant plot soon after it jumped over the gate of a house and hid in a bathroom where it was locked by the family living there several people gathered at the spot to take videos and photographs of the leopard as it sat on a ventilatordeshraj besala who locked the bathroom door told toi a passerby shouted tendua leopard i didnt take him seriously soon i realised the presence of a big animal in the bathroom when my brother and i went close to it the big cat tried to jump on us before it could attack i locked the bathroom the experience was quite terrifying as we have children at homeat 10am a local forest and wildlife staff received information about a leopard straying into ramnagar while the rescue team from gurgaon and faridabad reached the spot at 1215pm a local forest and wildlife guard reached the spot immediatelythe rescue operation was made easier because the leopard was in an enclosed area however giving a tranquiliser was a challenge it looked like a young leopard initially so we gave him a 2ml dose but we soon had to give another dose as soon as the leopard was under sedation we rescued it said shyam sunder divisional forest officer wildlife the leopard weighing about 55 kg was rescued at around 2pm over 10 staff members were at the spot the leopard gained conscious after a few hours and is completely healthy we might keep it under observation for some more time said vinod kumar additional principal chief conservator of forest haryanasources in the forest department said the leopard did not seem to have strayed from the aravalis the coat of the leopard is darker than the ones found in the aravalis it looks to be from shivalik region however we need to trace its pugmarks there are two ways of a leopard coming from the shivaliks to the aravalis via the yamuna floodplains or via a truck since there is a container yard near the area said an official who did not wish to be namedwildlife activists however differed there is no connectivity wildlife corridor between the shivaliks and this area such statements are made by the authorities to convey that the aravalis are not a leopard habitat the locals have spotted pugmarks and it is clear the leopard came from the aravalis via kundlimanesarpalwal expressway a leopard has come in the open to tell the chief minister manohar lal khattar that the aravalis have flourishing forests said sanjay rao from save aravali an ngo vedpal gujjar a local resident said people are terrified even now a similar incident took place about two years ago in krishna colony just a kilometre away the authorities should immediately protect the aravalis to stop mananimal conflict in the areain february 2017 a