Leopard killed pet dog in lobby of Mumbai apartment block

Shocking CCTV footage has emerged showing a wild leopard roaming a Mumbai apartment block and attacking a pet dog. The big cat entered the Lok Nisarg Apartments in Mulund, which shares a boundary wall with Sanjay Gandhi National Park, and dragged out a dog sleeping in the lobby. The video, recorded at 2.38am last Friday, shows a fully grown leopard entering the lobby of wing (B-7) of Lok Nisarg Apartments. The leopard is then seen approaching a ground floor apartment, where a dog was sleeping outside. It is seen grabbing the hapless dog by its neck, and dragging it out as the dog struggled to get free.

Suresh Pindarkar, the watchman on duty at B-7 when the leopard nonchalantly ventured into the lobby, saw the kill from behind an iron grill door abutting the stairway. The apartments' chairman, G P Lagad, said a shaken Pindarkar told him that he noticed the leopard only when the dog yelped in fear. "Pindarkar told me it was all over within seconds," he said. The apartments, which have seven wings, put up iron grille doors near the stairway of each building after a few leopard visits, and is now planning to install similar doors at the lobby level.

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Lagad said Friday's victim, Raju, was the sixth dog killed by the leopards at their premises in just a few years. "The clip is spinechilling. It seemed a ghost entered the building and took the dog away. The residents of Flat 003, at whose doorstep the dog was sleeping, are especially concerned, and so are the others living on the ground floor," he said. Animal activist Pawan Sharma, coordinator, Resquink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), said leopard visits to the society were hardly surprising as there is just a wall separating it from the national park.

"If the residents want, we can organize a session wherein we can suggest ways to tackle such situations. If the residents take precautions, they won't be harmed," he said. The Lok Nisarg residents, however, blamed the Forest department for not repairing the boundary wall. Tukaram Kolambkar, who resides on the sixth floor of B-7 building, said he was extremely worried for his son, who returns home late in the night. The residents have now been instructed to not let the children and the elderly venture out alone, as the society reports frequent leopard visits between June and September. Ground floor resident Manisha Gada said until iron grille doors were put up at the lobby, the residents will remain on tenterhooks.