AHMEDABAD: The second leopard seen in just seven months left residents of Sanathal village, 5km from Shela, scared. The villagers informed the forest department about the incident and also showed them its pug marks.
The foresters said that the leopard, which is believed to be a sub-adult, had hunted a nilgai calf. It is believed that the leopard, like the earlier one, had strayed into the area through the ravines alongside the Sabarmati.
“We have set up eight cages in the periphery of Sanathal village and are monitoring the site where the leopard made the kill. A team comprising of more than 20 forest personnel have been deployed to keep watch,” said R Sakkira Begum, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Ahmedabad.
The deputy conservator of forest said that the leopard disappeared into the shrubs of a nearby field. “Thereafter, the pug marks could not be traced as it got washed away in the rain,” she said.
The officials have sent photographs of the pug marks to determine the age of the leopard, which they believe is approximately 3 years old. Sources in the forest department claim that they are not ruling out the possibility of a second leopard too as there seems to be a difference in the pug impressions found at the site.
H S Singh, member of India’s National Board for Wildlife, said, “The higher frequency of leopards sightings in nearby cities is a clear sign of their population increase within sanctuaries. This could also be due to reduction of ungulate population like deer and chital.”
Two incident of wildlife sightings — one of a hyena in December last year and another of a leopard that was killed in a road accident at Sanathal crossroads on January 31 this year — have been reported. However, in the January incident, the department failed to discover from where the animal had come.