CISF jawan at the airport spotted a wild animal jumping over the boundary walls into the premises and hiding itself in a pipe near the new terminal building on Tuesday morning, Jollygrant Airport Director G K Gautam said.
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A leopard entered the Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun on Tuesday morning to create panic among the public.
Though the big cat could not immediately be identified because of the distance, the airport authorities informed the Thano range of Dehradun forest division about the incident
A team of the Uttarakhand forest department rushed to the site and managed to locate the feline inside the underground drain pipe. Efforts to tranquilize the trapped leopard failed and the forest department team has started working on an alternative plan.
In the over eight hour long rescue operation of the forest department team fixed cages, used a net and tranquilizer gun, but failed to evacuate the trapped leopard from the drain pipe.
Rescue team member Ravi Joshi said, “We are working on a new plan. We will be digging a pit near the drain pipe and after breaking the pipe will create a new exit route for the leopard.”
Efforts are still underway to safely rescue the big cat, he said.
Wild animals like leopards, wolves and jackals have been rescued at the airport in the past as well.
The Jollygrant Airport is surrounded by reserve forests where wild animals roam around freely
The forest department reached the airport at around 9 am and started the special operation to track the leopard. After locating the feline and failed experiments, a ditch was created near parallel to the drain pipe and a cage fixed. In a move to catch the leopard, the rescue team has fixed a cage in the ditch.
