In times when the production of car manufacturers is in fits and starts, with factories of different brands forced to stop or to reduce work rates due to the shortage of semiconductors before and more recently due to the problems on supply chains due to the War in Ukraine, read that one establishment Mercedes it stopped for six hours because of a leopard it feels more like a joke than a real event. Yet the episode really happened, at the site of the Three-pointed Star of Chakan in India where the C-Class, E-Class, S-Class and CLA Coupé are produced, as well as the GLA, GLC, GLE and GLS crossovers.
The feline broke into the German brand’s factory overnight, with the workers who surprised him the next morning at the entrance to the work lines. After the employees noticed the leopard, they closed the plant and contacted the State Forestry Department, which in turn contacted a local NGO who coordinated to bring in veterinarians and specialized personnel. The leopard, a three-year-old male, was reassured and then brought out of the factory. After making sure he hadn’t injured himself in some way, the animal was then released back into its habitat.
The rescue operation lasted a total of four hours e the plant was closed for a total of six hours but no one was injured due to the unusual intrusion. It is not clear how the leopard managed to enter the Mercedes plant but since the structure is located near a forest it is possible that the animal has ventured out of the vegetation. Maharashtra, the state where the Star site is located, is one of the regions with the highest density of leopards globally. Increasing urbanization has drastically reduced the areas where these animals can live and interactions between these felines and the local population would be increasingly frequent, all carefully managed by local authorities.
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