The leopard, which was captured in Sonepur on Thursday. Telegraph picture

Sonepur, July 6: A team of officials from Nandankanan zoo in Bhubaneswar last night rescued the leopard, which was trapped in a shop for nearly 30 hours. The animal is safe and has been moved to the Nandankanan zoo.

The 30-hour drama ended at night after the team managed to capture the four-year-old leopard, measuring four feet in length and two feet in height, with a chicken bait.

According to forest officials, it might have strayed into the town either from Barpahad reserve forest in Sonepur or Sinhasan reserve forest in Ulunda forest range of Sonepur district.

After capturing the animal, the forest officials took it to the nursery of the forest department in Sonepur, where it was kept at night.

The animal was examined this morning and it was found to be in good health. The team left with the leopard for Nandankanan zoo this morning. However, before that, the district administration made arrangements at the residence of the district collector here to allow people to have a look at the animal, which generated so much curiosity.

After the team from Nandankanan zoo arrived here at about 5pm yesterday, people thronged the Bada Bazar locality in thousands to witness the rescue operation. The team had a tough time tackling the crowd and rain made their task to rescue the animal even more difficult.

However, after six hours, the team was successful as the big cat walked into the cage placed by the team. But before that, police had to resort to a lathicharge to disperse the crowd, injuring about a dozen persons. Sonepur superintendent of police Dasarathi Naik said the cops had to apply force because the crowd refused to move despite repeated appeals.

“As people didn’t listen to the appeal, the police had to apply force. It was a mild lathicharge to disperse the people,” Naik said.

Sonepur forest range officer of Subarnapur Sushil Tripathy said the animal initially didn’t respond after seeing the large crowd outside.

“Though the team did their best to draw attention of the animal with the cage, it didn’t respond probably because of the crowd. Later, when some chicken pieces were put inside the cage, the leopard walked in,” Tripathy said.

He further said that no damage was caused to the animal or to the people during the rescue operation. “It is good that no damage was done to the animal or the people during the operation. The team also didn’t use tranquillisers to capture the animal,” he said.