clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Video: A 10-hour leopard attack in Bangalore injured 6, including a leopard attack expert

Libby Nelson is Vox's policy editor, leading coverage of how government action and inaction shape American life. Libby has more than a decade of policy journalism experience, including at Inside Higher Ed and Politico. She joined Vox in 2014.

A leopard led scientists, local police, and forestry employees in Bangalore, India, on an exhausting 10-hour chase on Sunday, injuring six people before it was finally tranquilized, captured, and moved to a wildlife reserve.

The video is tense, but — amazingly, given the violence of the attack — not unduly graphic:

The chase started at the Vibgyor International School. Security camera footage shows the leopard scaling a fence and racing along the top of a narrow wall before tackling wildlife expert Sanjay Gubbi from behind, clawing and biting him.

Bangalore is one of India's largest cities, the hub of its tech industry and a metropolis of more than 8 million people. But around the outskirts of the city, leopards still live in their natural habitat, occasionally making their way into urban life.

Gubbi, the scientist injured in the leopard attack, is a conservation expert whose PhD research dealt with managing leopard-human conflict.

Among other projects, including cameras that secretly record leopards near the city, Gubbi worked to compile a database of encounters between leopards and humans in Karnataka, the Indian state that includes Bangalore.

That database will now include his own violent clash with a big cat.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.