Leopard rescued from brick kiln

Rajkot: A leopard was rescued after it entered a brick kiln on the outskirts of Chalala town in Amreli district on Wednesday night. It took forest officials over three hours to rescue the leopard which was tracked with the help of drone cameras.
Forest officials said that the kiln is surrounded by shrubs and has several small kaccha houses in the vicinity for the labourers.However, as the brick production was stopped due to the monsoon, all the workers were relieved. During his daily visit to the kiln, the owner spotted the leopard in one of the houses on Wednesday night. He locked the door and informed the forest department. A team from Dhari, 19 km away, reached the village in the night itself.
The rescue team found no roof or windows in the house, so they arranged two nets from Dhari to cover the room and prevent the leopard from escaping into the village.
“We needed to ascertain that there was a leopard inside and people had not mistaken a dog for a leopard. For that we used a drone camera to confirm the presence of a leopard,” stated Jyoti Vaja, range forest officer of Dhari.
Inside the house, which included a kitchen, the leopard was continuously moving. Without a window, using a tranquillizer gun was difficult. The forest officials and a veterinary doctor climbed onto the wall of the house and targeted the leopard through a hole in the net.
The animal was later shifted to an animal care center.