Bhubaneswar: A leopard that was seen moving near Palaspalli area near the Biju Patnaik International Airport here for last two days was captured late on Tuesday at night and relocated to Chandka forest.
The animal was first sighted in the area at 11 pm on Sunday, after which the forest department was alerted. City Forest officials placed a bait cage near the airport Cargo gate and the spotted cat was trapped late at night.
According to officials, an absence of crowd helped them carry out the operation safely.
The forest department officials along with CISF team laid traps with chickens as baits to capture the wildcat and it entered the cage near the Cargo gate of the airport and caged.
A team of forest department and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) led by City DFO Ashok Mishra on Tuesday intensified operation by laying bait cage of chickens to capture the leopard.
And the efforts of the forest officials finally yielded results. The animal fell for the bait and entered cage in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar airport. It was initially shifted to Nandankanan Zoo and after being kept on observation for few hours was released to Chandka forests.
The area where the wildcat was spotted is just a kilometre away from the Naveen Niwas, the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
In the CCTV footages, the wild animal was seen scaling the boundary wall and entered the premises of the commercial establishment and jumping over the wall of a commercial complex, located near the airport at around 11 pm on Sunday night. Earlier, wild cats and jackals were captured from the operational area of the Biju Patnaik International Airport.
