Agra, Jun 22 (IANS): A leopard that had strayed into the urban clusters here two days back, was rescued on Tuesday after a four-hour-long operation in Etmauddaula area, across Yamuna.

The leopard had attacked one person in the Sitanagar locality, about five kilometres from the Taj Mahal. Soon after that the locals locked the feline inside a godown and informed the forest department.

A team of Wildlife SOS rescued the animal, who had perhaps lost its way from Bharatpur area in Rajasthan, hid around the dense green cover in the Agra Fort area before crossing over the Etmauddaula police station area.

The leopard caused a wave of panic among the residents before finding itself locked inside a mango godown. It could have harmed more people but timely intevention by the locals helped the officials to rescue the animal.

Police said the "CCTV footage installed in the street captured the big cat running out of a house and wandering frantically across the narrow, crowded streets. The leopard eventually made its way into a godown and the locals managed to lock the animal inside."

A large crowd gathered to witness the rare operation. The rescuers drilled a hole into the wall to tranquilise the leopard and then inserted a camera through the hole to locate the leopard.

The forest officers and police personnel took crowd control measures while Wildlife SOS veterinary doctor S.Ilayaraja immobilised the leopard using a sedative injection through the hole.

The leopard was carefully transferred to a transit facility for temporary observation.

Ilayaraja, Deputy Director of Veterinary Services at Wildlife SOS said: "The leopard is a male, between 7 and 8 years old. Such rescue operations are highly sensitive and need careful planning in order to ensure the safety of the animal as well as of the people. With a huge crowd of over two hundred people gathered around, the rescue was extremely challenging."

Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder & CEO Wildlife SOS said, "The depletion of natural prey base and habitat due to encroachment and deforestation is forcing wild animals like leopards to seek out easily available prey such as poultry and livestock in human settlements.

This often leads to human-leopard conflict which can have violent and brutal consequences for both humans and wildlife. We are grateful to the forest Department and the police for making this rescue a success."

Akhilesh Pande, Divisional Forest Officer, Agra said, "This is a densely populated area so the leopard sighting caused a wave of panic among the residents. After deploying our team to assess the situation, we contacted Wildlife SOS for their assistance in the rescue operation. We were able to provide effective and timely intervention with their help."