Exactly a week after a leopard was netted in a dramatic ten-hour operation at a school here, the captured leopard has escaped from its cage at the rescue centre of Bannerghata Biological Park in Bangalore on Monday.

Officials say the leopard must have broken a bar of the cage around 6 a.m. and jumped the fences. Over 50 forest officials, split into 6 teams, have been scouring around the forests. Villagers have been intimated and warned.

Forest officials said that if the leopard has slipped into the nearby Bannerghata national park, which is spread over 100sq.km., it might be difficult to track the feline. The around-4-year-old male leopard was described as being agitated and restless after its capture.

Officials were hesitant to release it to the wild because of its disabilities - a missing canine and a cloudy eye. This is the second animal to escape the rescue centre this year. In January, a Himalayan Black bear - got from Tripura - had scaled the walls.

(The Hindu)