A leopard in the drawing room
By Donald Banerjee and Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service

PANCHKULA, Oct 28 — A full-grown leopard created panic in Panchkula when it barged into the drawing room of a house in Sector 8 after ripping open the wire mesh of the front door here this morning.

The spotted beast brushed past a 10-year-old boy and used its claws against a police official before being tranquillised and caged in an operation lasting three hours. During this period all roads in Panchkula led to Sector 8, as word spread that a "sher" had entered Panchkula.

The leopard had strayed into Panchkula from Berwala in Morni Hills.

The drama began to unfold at 7 a.m. Ten-year-old Arjun Mittal opened the door of his house (728, Sector 8), walked out and froze. Right in front of him was the spotted beast.

He shouted: "Daddy, daddy a leopard."

Their dog, a German shepherd, sensed the urgency in the child's cry. It leapt on to the balcony wall letting out a growl followed by barking. The leopard looked up. The dog, seeing its little master in danger, again leapt on to the wall of the balcony. In the process a flower pot came crashing down. The big cat brushed past Arjun and clawed at the door. But the dog's barking made it leap over the wall and into the next house.

Randhir Singh staying in the annexe of house No 727 had just gone out to leave his daughter. The leopard ripped open the wire mesh of the front door and barged into the drawing room. The housewife, who was cutting vegetables, screamed and ran into the next room bolting the door.

As the spotted animal made itself comfortable, a phone call was made to the police. This was followed by phone calls to the wildlife department. By then quite a crowd had gathered outside.

Because of the noise the big cat preferred to remain inside the drawing room. Officials of the Haryana Wildlife Department tried their hand at firing tranquilliser guns. The police had a difficult time controlling the crowd. The dog continued to bark from the balcony.

An SOS to Chhat Bir found the zoo director, Dr Vinod Sharma, arrive with his team and a tranquilliser gun.

Dr Sharma opened the window of the drawing room, while a team of officials put a cage near the wire mesh of the front door. The leopard looked at the tranquilliser gun trained at him. It tried to go out of the same broken wire mesh and ended up into the cage. A police official, Mr Surinder Pal Singh, who was standing nearby was clawed by the animal before Dr Sharma's tranquilliser darts found the mark. The animal banged its head against the cage walls. But then the effect of the tranquilliser began to show. It collapsed. The crowd heaved a sigh of relief as the leopard was loaded onto a jeep trailer for its journey to Chhat Bir Zoo.

Mr Anil Mittal, advocate, father of 10-year-old Arjun, said it was the German shepherd that had saved his son. The dog still looked down on the crowd from the balcony, exhaustion writ large on its face. A student of class VI in St Kabir Public School, Arjun overcame his fear and attended school.

Flower pots and plants in both houses were damaged. This damage was not caused by the animal, but the onlookers who thronged the area during the three-hour operation.