Rescued leopard cub disappears from cage in Indore zoo premises

Indore, Dec 03 (PTI):
A six-month-old injured leopard cub that was rescued and brought to the Kamala Nehru Zoo here from Burhanpur district in Madhya Pradesh has gone missing from its cage, prompting the authorities to temporarily shut the zoo as a precautionary measure. The mesh of the cage, in which the cub was kept inside the zoo premises, was found broken, officials said on Friday, adding that the forest department has launched an inquiry into the incident.
According to officials, the injured leopard cub was found wandering in the forest area after getting separated from its mother two days back and was brought to the zoo here for treatment. “The forest staffers had kept the cub inside a cage installed on a vehicle parked on the zoo premises on Wednesday night and left the spot after that,” zoo in-charge Uttam Yadav said. “We had already informed the forest staff that we will not be able to shift the animal at night,” he added. On Thursday, when the zoo staff went to the cage for shifting the cub, they failed to find the animal inside and also found that the mesh of the cage was broken, Yadav said. A joint team of the zoo and the forest department has launched a search inside the premises and in the surrounding area, but they are yet to trace the cub, he said.
“As a precautionary measure, the authorities have shut the zoo,” he said. Meanwhile, Pradeep Mishra, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Burhanpur, said, “I have ordered an inquiry into the disappearance of the leopard cub to know whose negligence caused it. But our first priority is to find the animal.”
He claimed that in the CCTV footage, a leopard cub is found roaming in the zoo. The DFO said that on the information of the villagers of Nepanagar forest area, the leopard cub was rescued and as there was an injury in its legs, it was shifted to Indore for better treatment.