Leopard enters house in Valsad, captured after 7 hrs

Surat: Kishore Thakor’s family woke up with cries for help from a woman working in the backyard of their house at Kachigam village of Valsad district on Monday morning. Soon, all the family members were seen running for cover as a female leopard emerged from the backside of the house.The wildcat attacked Kishore (55) and his son Keyur (32) when they tried to shoo it away. The father-son duo sustained injuries and had to be hospitalized, said forest officials, who were able to capture the leopard after nearly seven hours. Kishore suffered injuries on his hand and chest while Keyur suffered injuries on his hand and back. Forest officials claimed that the leopard had on Sunday evening attacked two women in Velvach village about 1.5 km from Kachigam. On Monday morning, at about 6 am the leopard entered the house of Kishore from the back door when women of the house were working in the backyard. Seeing the leopard, the women shouted for help. Keyur came down from the first floor and tried to drive away the leopard. At the same time, Kishore also reached the spot. The leopard attacked the father-son duo before entering a room in the house.Kishore closed the room from outside and informed the forest officials. Several attempts were made to capture the leopard that was trapped inside one of the rooms.Later the forest officials used a tranquilizer gun but it failed to tranquilize the leopard. Following this, the forest officials set up a cage near the door of the room and captured the leopard.“There was no boundary wall around the house and the back door was open when the leopard entered. It was rescued and shifted to a safe location,” said a forest official. “Total four people have become victims of leopard attack since Sunday evening. The leopard has been rescued and is being examined,” said a forest official.