Leopard spotted near residences of district officials in Ghaziabad; teams pressed in for search ops

The district magistrate on Tuesday evening confirmed that the animal was a leopard and that teams from Delhi and Meerut were called in to trace the feline at the earliest.

Residents of Raj Nagar were taken aback when a Leopard was spotted roaming around in the streets of Raj Kunj locality Tuesday morning, after it emerged from the official residence of the vice-chairperson of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) located adjacent.

The area where the leopard was spotted is dotted with official residences of the Ghaziabad district magistrate, the senior superintendent of police and those of other administrative officers. (SOURCED)

The district magistrate on Tuesday evening confirmed that the animal was a leopard and that teams from Delhi and Meerut were called in to trace the feline at the earliest.

The area where the leopard was spotted is dotted with official residences of the Ghaziabad district magistrate, the senior superintendent of police and those of other administrative officers. The area also has schools and the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.

The animal emerged from the official residence of Kanchan Verma, the vice-chairperson of GDA, around 11am, and attacked a gardener, Hari Mohan, in the process. Mohan said that he suffered a minor injury to his hand.

“It seemed like a leopard, given its height and length, and was probably hiding in the generator room. When the staff went there to turn on the generator, the animal jumped out and tried to attack the gardener. When other staff ran to save him, the animal jumped to the adjacent Raj Kunj locality,” Verma said.

“From there, it is learnt that the animal jumped into a school, which is located at the back side. Its images were captured in the CCTV installed at my residence. There are also pug marks of the animal in the garden,” she added.

Raj Kunj has 90 houses. The feline was spotted by residents while its images were taken in CCTV cameras while it roamed the streets.

“Our neighbours spotted the animal roaming outside their houses and they raised an alert. Since Monday night, all stray dogs in the area have been barking continuously. When the leopard came, children playing in the park ran to their homes. After some time, the leopard jumped the boundary wall and went to the school area, which has large fields and has thick vegetation,” said Ajay Audhichya, a resident of Raj Kunj.

“Teams of the forest department asked us about the weight and height of the animal but they could not spot it or capture it,” he added.

Teams from the Kavi Nagar police and the forest department went to the school, Ingraham Institute, and alerted officials.

“The teams searched the school campus but the animal could not be located. We also shut down the premises as a precautionary measure but nothing was found during the search. In the morning we heard loud noises from the house of the GDA V-C nearby. It was probably due to the spotting of the animal there,” said Rajiv Kumar, principal of Ingraham Institute, Hindi medium branch, Hapur Road.

Search still on

The search for the animal continued till late Tuesday but to no avail.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said that the forest department is carrying out a detailed search for the animal.

“The forest department teams are on the job and have called rescue teams from Meerut and Delhi to capture the animal. They have confirmed that it was a leopard and not a fishing cat. I have directed officials to make announcements in nearby localities so that residents along with their children should stay indoors till the animal is safely captured,” said Pandey.

The neighbouring localities are Raj Nagar, Kavi Nagar, Shashtri Nagar, among others.

The last time an animal from the cat family, possibly a leopard, was spotted in the city was on August 1 when the feline had ventured into the locality’s Sector 3 area. Its images were captured in CCTVs. The forest department had conducted a recce of the area but could not conclusively tell whether it was a leopard or a fishing cat.

In another sighting last year on December 17, a leopard had ventured into the Hindon airbase. The three and half year-old male leopard was trapped and later released safely in the Saharanpur forest range.

Before this, April 2017 a male leopard was captured from Krishna Vihar Kuti area near Bhopra, which is close to the Hindon airbase. The leopard was captured after about five hours, during which it had to be tranquilised thrice. However, before it was captured, it injured a man, a child and cattle.

According to officials, the leopard, Panthera pardus, is listed under the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and included in Appendix I of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora). It is also listed as Near Threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

They said that a leopard is known to travel 50-100km in fields during night. Likewise, the fishing cat is also listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. It means that it faces a high threat of extinction.