Leopard seen in Narela may not be relocated

NEWDELHI: The Delhi forest department is exploring the possibility of not having to relocate the leopard spotted in Narela on Monday, even as another sighting was reported on the air force campus on Wednesday.

The forest department, which already has deployed patrol teams in the area, says they will also be holding a meeting with the air force station authorities on Thursday.

“Tomorrow, we will meet air force station authorities. If they don’t have a problem with the animal being in that area and if we feel the area is secure enough and away from human habitat, then it may be allowed to live there. We will also talk to local police to assess if it will be dangerous for the people in the nearby areas. Even this morning, the leopard was sighted on the air force campus,” Tarun Johri, IFS conservator of forests, Delhi government, said.

Earlier, on Monday, an air force staff had even shot a mobile phone video clip of the leopard strolling around on the campus.

Johri said the forest department has already written to the air force station to release the video of the sighting. Even though a cage has already been sent, it has not been set up yet and instructions have been given to only scan the area for pugmarks.

“It is a restricted area with no civilian footfall. A major part of the campus is a huge forest area. There is a good mix of wild and domestic prey in these areas. So we are exploring the possibility of not relocating it,” he said.

Experts, however, are not ruling out the possibility of the leopard being a transient one.

“It is also possible that a transient individual has landed up there and could move away in a few days. Till then suitable precautions have to be taken.it would be important to correctly ascertain the presence of leopard through wildlife experts who are well-versed with leopard signs. This is extremely important as many times wrong identification of spoors (evidence of animal presence) has led to unnecessary panic. Even pictures of cheetahs (which is not found in India) have been circulated in social media leading to confusion and panic,” Sanjay Gubbi from Nature Conservation Foundation said.

In November 2016, a leopard had trekked upstream along the Yamuna from Haryana and had entered the Yamuna Biodiversity Park in Delhi. It was later caught by forest officials and released in the Shivalik ranges near Saharanpur. In September last year, too, rumours of a leopard sighting gripped Alipur, Outer Delhi. However, no conclusive evidence was found later.

Gubbi said wildlife including leopards and elephants are expanding into areas where they were perhaps not found earlier.

“But when large animals, that could possibly cause grievous injuries to people, are in human dense areas a lot of public education, outreach and caution is necessary to ensure safety of both people and the animal,” he added.

Vidya Athreya, an ecologist working on human-leopard conflict, hailed the forest department move and said legally by the Willdife Protection Act one cannot simply trap a leopard because it has been seen. “But often due to fear and the negative image the leopard has in the media, the forest department is usually under pressure to capture it. In this case, the department has taken a good step to initiate a dialogue with the air force authorities. In our experience, dialogue and monitoring of the situation by both staff and locals and awareness about the animals helps,” Athreya said.