Pithampur (Madhya Pradesh): A major scare gripped the Special Economic Zone (SEZ-II) in Pithampur on Monday evening after a leopard was reportedly sighted within the premises of Alkem Laboratories. Factory workers, alarmed by the sighting, promptly informed their management, who in turn alerted the SEZ authorities.
Sub-divisional forest officer DS Meda said that as soon as they received information, they sent the forest department team. The team searched the entire area for around five hours and found pug marks of the cat near the factory where the animal was seen.
The news sent ripples through the SEZ. Concerned about the safety of thousands of workers, forest officials were immediately dispatched to the area to initiate a search operation. A team comprising of forest ranger, three deputy rangers and seven forest guards combed the entire SEZ from 8 am to 1:30 pm on Tuesday.
However, to everyone's surprise, the pugmarks revealed not the that of a leopard, but of a large cat. The revelation came as a huge relief to the SEZ authorities and workers.
