Leopard terror in people of Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: The officials of the forest department of Ghaziabad are in a tizzy trying to catch an elusive leopard. The leopard, which in the last one week, has been spotted roaming the city a number of times by human eyes or in CCTV cameras, is still at large. The last reported sighting of the leopard was on November 23, 2021, when it was seen going from Rajnagar towards Dasna.

On receiving the news, the forest department team reached the spot to catch the leopard. This encounter resulted in serious consequences for the forest officials. Seeing the forest department's team laying the trap, the leopard panicked and attacked them. Two people including forest department constable Sunil Rathi were injured in the incident.

After this incident, the search for the leopard has intensified. The teams of forest officials from Meerut, Agra, and Ghaziabad have started a rapid search to catch the leopard. The teams in search of the leopard have laid traps in various places around the city. Several teams of the forest department are also engaged to trace the leopard in Dasna forest.

Diksha Bhandari, Social Forestry officer said, “A cage has been installed in Prem Kumar Gogi Farm House having an area of ​​250 acres. We are also searching for the leopard in the forest of Dasna. This area is on high alert and police and other security forces would be stationed soon in the area.”

An advisory is being circulated asking the residents to keep the windows and doors closed, keep the lights on and not let children and senior citizens go outside.

Ravi Sekhar, ATM guard said, “My children told me to stay inside the ATM cabin. There is a fear among common people. Seeing a dog or a cat in the night also makes the heart shudder.”

According to the officials, the leopard is still hungry because the search team did not get any clue that it had eaten something. There are so many rumors also coming from different places. People are sharing different videos claiming that they have seen a leopard in their area. In such a situation, there is additional pressure on the forest department teams.