Drive to find leopard habitat in Ghaziabad

The court incident is just the latest in a series of leopard sightings in the area, said officials. In November 2021, a leopard had ventured into the official residence of the vice-chairperson of the Ghaziabad Development Authority in Raj Nagar, which is barely 100 metres from the district courts complex

The Ghaziabad forest department has started a drive on Tuesday to find the temporary habitat conducive for leopards in the city. Officials said they have identified several dense forests/vegetation spots and are scanning them for traces of leopard.

Ghaziabad, India - February 14, 2023: Officials from the Forest Department conducting a search operation in the forests adjoining Ingram Institute and ALT Center after a leopard had reached the Ghaziabad court a few days back in Ghaziabad , India on Tuesday, February 14 . 2022. (Photo by Sakib Ali /Hindustan Times)

The exercise comes after an adult male leopard entered the Ghaziabad court complex in Raj Nagar on February 8 and injured 10 persons before being tranquillised and caught. It was released into the Saharanpur range forests the next day.

The court incident is just the latest in a series of leopard sightings in the area, said officials. In November 2021, a leopard had ventured into the official residence of the vice-chairperson of the Ghaziabad Development Authority in Raj Nagar, which is barely 100 metres from the district courts complex.

“These incidents have led us believe that the leopard has found some temporary habitat within the city. We have mapped several areas with dense growth and vegetation near Raj Nagar where the animal could have stayed for some time before venturing out. The areas surveyed by our teams on Tuesday included a school which has a huge plot with thick growth, besides a central government training centre in Raj Nagar,” said Manish Singh, divisional forest officer (DFO), Ghaziabad.

The officials said the teams are looking for pug marks, traces of excreta and even bodies of dead animals in order to trace the spot where the leopard may have taken refuge.

“The teams could not find these traces on Tuesday but several nilgai and peacock were found at the training centre which is spread over an area of about 80 acres. We have identified several more locations like Morta and Sadarpur near Delhi Meerut Road and a search operation will be carried out by our teams there. The teams will not use drones; instead they will take up manual surveillance,” the DFO said.

There have been several recurrent incidents of leopard sightings in Ghaziabad these past few years.

On December 17, 2019, a three-and-half year-old male leopard was trapped and captured from the Hindon airbase and released into Saharanpur range.

An animal from the cat family, possibly a leopard, was spotted in Vaishali’s Sector 3 on August 1, 2020.

In April 2017, a male leopard was captured from Krishna Vihar Kuti area near the Hindon airbase. The leopard had injured two persons and cattle.

More recently, on January 18, an adult leopard was killed on Delhi-Meerut Expressway near Bhojpur in Ghaziabad. Police said the big cat was run over by an unidentified speeding vehicle.

After the court incident, the forest department said three were three possibilities for how the leopard entered the court – the animal probably ventured into the city via the river Hindon route which has sufficient water and presence of small animals; the animal probably came all the way from Amangarh Tiger Reserve in Bijnor; or it lost its habitat in the sugarcane fields in western Uttar Pradesh after the harvesting season.

Environmentalists said the possibility of the leopard coming from Bijnor or Hastinapur wildlife sanctuary does not hold much water as these places are quite far from Ghaziabad city and there are a number of cities, villages and other human habitats separating the two places.

“It is a possibility that the leopard may have found some new habitat nearby, which is isolated and undisturbed by humans. These could be near river Hindon or the Upper Ganga Canal where there is dense growth and forest cover. The route/trail should be found by the forest department by way of continuous manual surveillance,” said Akash Vashishtha, a city-based environmentalist.