Special teams of the Forest Department have been deployed across Prayagraj’s forest-fringe areas to monitor leopard movement after a couple of incidents of the wild cats straying into villages triggered alarm.
The vigilance has been intensified in the three development blocks of Meja, Shankargarh and Koraon, as well as parts of the trans-Ganga region. According to divisional forest officer (DFO) Arvind Yadav, leopard presence is not unusual in these blocks of the trans-Yamuna belt because they lie close to the forested stretches of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
Explaining the species’ behaviour, DFO said leopards are territorial and stealthy animals, known to fiercely protect their range. Their occasional entry into villages along the MP border, he said, is often linked to this territorial instinct.
Conservation efforts in recent years have led to a rise in the leopard population, but the forest cover available to them has not expanded in the same proportion. As a result, stronger leopards often push weaker ones out of their territory, forcing the displaced animals into nearby human settlements.
The Forest Department currently manages about 21,500 hectares of forest cover in the trans-Yamuna region of Prayagraj, while the trans-Ganga area has only around 18 hectares. With such limited green patches, officials say the chances of human-wildlife encounters increase significantly.
{{/usCountry}}The Forest Department currently manages about 21,500 hectares of forest cover in the trans-Yamuna region of Prayagraj, while the trans-Ganga area has only around 18 hectares. With such limited green patches, officials say the chances of human-wildlife encounters increase significantly.
{{/usCountry}}Rise in human-leopard conflicts
Rural areas around Prayagraj have seen a rise in human-leopard conflict over the past decade, particularly during 2025–26, with several attacks resulting in injuries. On January 8 this year, two men and a cow were injured when a leopard entered Chhibaiya village under Jhunsi police station limits in the trans-Ganga belt. The frightened animal ran into a house, where quick-thinking villagers locked it in a room.
A rescue operation lasting nearly 10 hours followed, ending only after the Forest Department tranquilised the leopard, secured it in a cage and released it in the forests of Chitrakoot.
A similar incident was reported in October last year when a leopard strayed into the campus of the Harishchandra Research Institute (HRI) in the Jhunsi area. The animal had already been causing fear across more than a dozen villages in Bahadurpur block for nearly two months. Guards at HRI finally spotted it in the institute’s 50-acre forested stretch during night patrols. Forest teams, aided by a thermal imaging drone and experts from Kanpur, combed the campus and warned residents to remain indoors.
In August 2025, another leopard was believed to be behind a series of attacks in Kotwa and Bahadurpur, injuring three people in Malkhanpur. The animal remained active in the fields of Malkhanpur Dhanecha village, about 30 km from the city, prompting a 12-hour search operation by forest officials. An earlier incident in May 2017 saw four people being injured in a leopard attack in Dalapur village of Phoolpur tehsil. Several sporadic encounters were also reported between 2015 and 2019, with villagers often attempting to drive the animals away using sticks.
To handle such situations, the Forest Department deploys teams, including experts from Kanpur Zoo, to set up cages and use tranquiliser guns during rescue missions.