Leopard scare in Sikrod: No fresh pug marks noticed

No fresh pug marks were noticed in Sikrod near NH-58 on Monday, a day after the forest department laid a trap to nab a wild animal said to be roaming in the area.

No fresh pug marks were noticed in Sikrod near NH-58 on Monday, a day after the forest department laid a trap to nab a wild animal said to be roaming in the area.

Officials of the divisional forest department said they will go for one more attempt to catch the animal on Monday night.(Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

Officials of the divisional forest department said they will go for one more attempt to catch the animal on Monday night.

An iron cage, with a goat, was placed in the area on Sunday night after villagers informed Ghaziabad officials that they have seen a wild animal in the area that looked like a leopard or a fishing cat.

“Before laying the trap on Sunday night, we cleared the entire area of the old pug marks. This was done to avoid confusion if the animal comes again. However, the animal did not come again as no fresh pug marks were seen in the area on Monday morning. We will keep the trap on for Monday night as well,” said BP Singh, divisional forest officer.

After lifting the pug marks on Saturday night, forest officials had said that the animal could be from a dog family, including wolf, hyena or jackal.

“Such species move frequently and can change location by 5 to 15 km in a day. Some of the pug marks had suggestions of claws that are generally found in the species of the dog family. However, leopard sightings are not uncommon. Such animals from the cat family can travel 40km-50km in a day. There have been instances where leopards and fishing cats have been spotted earlier,” Singh said.

Teams of the forest department stayed at Sikrod on Sunday and will continue to be there till Tuesday morning.

Villagers had informed officials that they saw a leopard-like animal on Friday. Later they claimed that they saw the animal near the school premises on Saturday night. The CCTV camera footage from school, however, did not have any animal.

The area, which is hardly 300-400 metres from the highway, has dense vegetation and farmlands. It has several prominent schools, a management college and a hospital.