A four-year-old panther Sunday strayed into a village near here and triggered commotion with the villagers trying to scare it away and the wild cat attacking the crowd and injuring three of them before being captured.
The panther was sighted Sunday morning in Laxmipura village in Kota India. Police team and Forest Department officials were rushed to the village to rescue the beast.

But before the rescue team could reach the village, the panther had already triggered panick among villagers, some of whom had been trying to chase away the beast, he said.

But the animal, in turn, had attacked the chasing crowd and injured three of the villagers,

The injured villagers, who suffered minor injuries, were later treated at a hospital and discharged,

The Forest Department team could reach the village only around 2 pm and launched its operation to capture the animal after tranquillizing it, the police officer said.

But with the animal being quite agitated and running about here and there and often hiding in the face of a huge crowd of the villagers, it took multiples attempts by the forest officials to tranquillize it.

Kota Divisional Forest Officer Jodhraj Singh said the rescue team faced difficulty due to the huge crowd, which had to be persuaded by the officials to stay aside for smooth conduct of the operation.

As the animal hid itself in a house, it was eventually tranquillized at around 4.30 pm through a hole made by displacing brick slabs on the roof, he said, adding the two earlier bids to tranquillize the panther had failed due to the commotion.

The panther was rescued alive and was safely shifted to Kota zoo where it would be kept under observation for a few days, Singh said.

The rescued panther is a male and about four years old, said veterinary doctor Akhilesh Kumar Pandey, who examined the animal.

It weighs about 50 kilograms and is in sound health, he said.