NEW DELHI (Diya TV) — A failed attempt to capture a wild leopard from a residential area in the state of West Bengal left at least one person injured.
Officials in the town of Raiganj tried to use a net to catch the big cat, which fought its way out and is still on the loose, Reuters reports. Video of the incident can be viewed below:
“Many efforts were made to capture a leopard which entered the residential area, but it gave us the slip. One man got injured. As of now, we don’t if we can recapture it as we don’t know its whereabouts,” a local volunteer, Sumit Nandy, told Reuters.
The injured man received treatment at a local hospital.
Leopards are a protected species in India, however, more and more of them are straying into cities and villages in search of food as their habitats continue to shrink. This has lead to frequent, often videotapped run-ins between the big cats and people in urban settings. In 2014, a leopard injured six people and forced other residents indoors in the northern city of Meerut. That leopard wandered through an army hospital and a crowded market, setting off a minor stampede in which two others were injured.
In February of last year, people caught video footage of a leopard terrorizing a school in southern India.
