A male leopard that had strayed into International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) complex here nearly five months ago, was today finally trapped, officials said.

The leopard, weighing 65-70 kgs, believed to have wandered into the vast ICRISAT complex at Patencheru, on city outskirts from a forest area had given a tough time to wildlife officials playing hide and seek in hideouts on the 1,390 hectare campus.

"The leopard was roaming inside the ICRISAT complex for the past few months and was finally trapped early this morning. The animal has been transported to Nehru Zoological Park here," Chief Wildlife Warden (Telangana) P K Sharma said. According to Nehru Zoological Park officials, the leopard was sighted around 150 days ago in ICRISAT. "Due to the huge boundary, it was unable to move out.

As many as 16 night camera traps had been installed to sight the leopard, besides nine trap cages and one big cage were put into operation," veterinary surgeon Dr Srinivas told PTI.
One veterinary doctor and one forest official were among those who were put on continuous duty to rescue the leopard, besides, preventing any untoward incident in view of the surrounding human habitation, he said.

"After being shifted to zoo, the leopard also underwent fitness tests. Following direction from higher authorities, the wild animal was later released into Srisailam Tiger Reserve at Markapuram," the doctor added. "A security guard at the campus noticed the leopard trapped in one of cages and immediately forest officials were alerted. It is good that the leopard has been safely rescued and no one was harmed in the in last five months," an ICRISAT official said.