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Sunday, Jun 01, 2008
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Panther trapped in Rajahmundry

Staff Reporter

Photo: S. Rambabu

BIG CAT: The panther lying tranquilized in the cage in ONGC base complex on Saturday.

RAJAHMUNDRY: A panther which sent the people of ONGC base residential area into a tizzy for over three days in this busy town was finally trapped during the early hours of Saturday. This is the second incident in 45 days in Rajahmundry.

In the first incident, a panther sneaked into Lalithanagar and entered the bathroom of a house before being finally caged by forest officials after nine hours of operation.

This time, the high drama ended around 5.30 a.m., when the wild cat was seen trapped in a cage put up by forest officials two days ago. The ONGC security staff and a forest guard who saw the panther in the cage, immediately called veterinary doctor Srinivas of Nehru Zoological Park, Visakhapatnam, who was camping here along with other forest officials for the last two days. Dr. Srinivas started his operation at 8.30 a.m. after tranquilizing the animal. A large number of ONGC employees and their families rushed to have a glimpse of the huge panther. The doctor said the animal was around nine to ten years old weighing 60 kg and 6 feet in length.

Finally, the big cat was carted away and let off in the dense forests of Maredumilli by late evening. Wildlife DFO Govinda Rao, Research DFO Jyothi, ONGC security officer B.N. Raju, Vizag Zone Forest Chief Conservator Udaya Bhaskar and others supervised the operation.

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