2JULY2019 STATE OBSERVER
A leopard, which had entered inside the building of a government medical college in Srinagar town of Garhwal district in Uttarakhand on Sunday, was shot dead on Tuesday. Sources told Zee Media that the leopard had entered the administration section of the building which has around 80 rooms on Sunday morning. Since the leopard had entered the building on Sunday there were no students inside the building but a meeting of college officials was scheduled for the same day at around 10 AM. Some employees of the college were present inside the building when the leopard made it way inside the compound and attacked one of the employees. The security guards swung into action immediately and closed all five gates of the building. The college officials then informed the police and forest department about the incident and they reached the spot to search for the leopard. But the police and forest teams were not equipped with proper equipment and as a result of this two more people were left injured by the leopard. The forest department officials then tried to catch the leopard by putting up a cageThe college remained closed on Monday and Tuesday due to the presence of leopard inside the building. On Tuesday, the forest department launched a door-to-door search operation to capture the big cat but the forest department looked helpless in its attempt to catch the leopard. It is surprising to know that the forest department officials were carrying just a net and a gun to capture the leopard. Finally, when the leopard was finally spotted by forest department personnel, two private hunters who were brought by the department to catch the leopard opened fire at the big cat which resulted in its death.Well-known hunter Joy Hakil said that the leopard was trying to attack the forest department officials and this prompted his fellow hunter Azhar Ahmed to shoot down the leopard. Joy expressed grief over the death of leopard and said that a belt was already wrapped around the neck of leopard and he was sick and injured because of that. Joy added that this was the main reason why the leopard came out from the forest towards the residential area.