Leopard saunters into Bijnor school, sends teachers scurrying for cover
Teachers claimed that the leopard stayed there for some time and tried to open the door of the classroom
The new student marched into the primary school of village Issapur, district Bijnor, on Friday, only to find it closed due to a holiday.
The curious new student - a leopard - entered the school premises and once teachers caught sight of him, they hurriedly locked themselves inside a classroom.
Teachers claimed that the leopard stayed there for some time and tried to open the door of the classroom.
The matter was reported to the forest officials who arrived at the school the next day and installed a trap camera to catch the movement of the leopard.
At the same time, the team also tried to find the pugmarks of the leopard. Divisional forest officer (DFO) Gyan Singh, however, said that no pugmarks were found, therefore a trap camera has been installed to record the movement of the leopard.
The forest team also questioned teachers about the incident and forest ranger Mahesh Gautam said, “If leopard activity is captured in the camera, then a cage and net will be installed in the area. The forest ranger said that no clear marks of the leopard clawing at the school door were found.
On the other hand, villagers Pradeep Kumar, Yogesh Kumar and village head Sudhir Kumar claimed that a leopard had taken away a dog from the village four days ago and forest staff were informed about it.
Forest officials have appealed to teachers and parents to remain alert and suggested parents accompany their children to school and while they return for a few days.
Leopards had killed 26 persons in district Bijnor since February 2023 while more than 67 leopards have been caged in the same period of time. Many of these caged leopards had been released either in the Shivalik range of Saharanpur or sent to Lucknow, Kanpur and Gorakhpur zoos.