Wildlife teams deployed near Masuri after nilgai is found killed by leopard

Forest officials said the killing was reported from Noorpur village near Delhi-Meerut Expressway and added that though there was no sighting of the animal, all signs indicate the presence of a leopard

Officials of the divisional forest department on Wednesday deployed teams and put up a cage in Noorpur near Masuri to capture a leopard that killed a nilgai on Tuesday night and dragged the carcass to a distance through the wheat and sugarcane fields.

A cage has been installed by the forest department team n the sugarcane field in Noorpur village in Ghaziabad on Wednesday. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Forest officials said the killing was reported from Noorpur village near Delhi-Meerut Expressway and added that though there was no sighting of the animal, all signs indicate the presence of a leopard.The department has put up a cage and deployed two teams to capture the animal.

Foresters said the leopard killed an adult nlgai and dragged its carcass a couple of hundred metres through the agricultural fields. The injury marks on the carcass and the way it has been dragged indicate that the predator was a leopard. Further, we also found semi-visible pug marks in the fields. These signs indicate the presence of a leopard in the area. We have put up a cage with the nilgai carcass in it. Animals like leopard have a tendency to return to consume the prey they killed,” said Manish Singh, divisional forest officer.

He estimated that the animal is expected to return to the carcass in a day or two. The spot is close to the city limits and has vast agricultural fields besides the Upper Ganga Canal, which is hemmed in by thick vegetation that is ideal habitat for small animals.

On January 17, a leopard was killed on the Delhi-Meerut Expressway near Bhojpur after being hit by a speeding vehicle. Later on February 8, an adult leopard attacked and injured at least 10 persons at the Ghaziabad district courts. The animal was captured and released the next day into forest ranges of Saharanpur.

After the court incident, wildlife department officials decided to get more equipment to deal with such situations.

“We have sent a request to our headquarters to purchase of a tranquilliser gun and three more cages. One extra cage will be for capture of animal while the other two will be for its transportation and medical care. We do not have tranquilliser gun currently and each time we need one, we have to call teams from Meerut. Also, currently, we have only one cage to capture animal. So, additional resources have been sought to deal with situations involving leopards,” Singh added.said