No sign of leopard, forest dept mulls calling off search
A TEAM OF OFFICIALS SCOURING THE AREA FOR PUG MARKS AND SCATS, TWO CAGES WITH LIVE BAITS AND FOUR CAMERA TRAPS FAILED TO SPOT IT
NEWDELHI: More than two weeks after the forest department launched a search to capture a leopard that was reportedly spotted inside the Air Force station at Narela i n Delhi, there seems to be no trace of the animal.
A team of forest officials scouring the area for pug marks and scats, two cages with live baits i n t hem and four camera traps have failed to spot the animal.
Forest officials, who had laid the camera traps and cages to capture the animal on the request of the air force officials, are now mulling to call off the search operation.
“There has been no trace of the leopard. It seems the animal has moved on to some other areas. We could not find any pug mark. The cameras failed to capture any images of the animal. We might have to call off this search operation in the next few days,” said a senior official of the state forest department.
The leopard was first spotted by night patrol officers near the Kendriya Vidyalaya School inside the air force station on April 9, triggering panic among the residents.
With pressure mounting from the Air Force to relocate the leopard, the forest department had set up camera traps and cages near a waterhole among other places. But none of the efforts yielded any results even after 16 days.
“The eyewitness had shot a video of the animal on his mobile camera. But the video was not clear and the animal couldn’t be distinctly identified,” said a forest official who checked the video.
“It seems the animal has moved on. Young leopards often travel long distances in search of new territories. Someone might have spotted it while it was on the move,” said Vidya Athreya, an ecologist working on humanleopard conflicts.
Karnataka-based conservationist Sanjay Gubbi from Nature Conservation Foundation said: “First we have to ensure it was a leopard. Many times false alarms are triggered.”