Ghaziabad: Forest team put on alert after leopard sighting reported near PAC, Govindpuram

The forest department has put its teams on alert after a leopard was reportedly sighted near the 47th Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) battalion campus in Govindpuram, Ghaziabad, officials aware of the matter said.

Officials said that the PAC officials had written to the forest department on Wednesday, reporting the sighting and warning that the presence of the leopard could pose a risk to personnel and their families living on the campus.

“Our teams will stay on alert for the next three days and will try to find out the presence of the leopard with the help of pug marks or other indications left by the animal. However, a midnight search proved futile and no traces of presence of leopard in the area came to light,” said Manish Singh, divisional forest officer (DFO).

He added that a similar sighting was reported by residents in Dasna three days ago, but a search in the area did not yield any results.

The last confirmed sighting of a leopard in Ghaziabad was on May 21, when an adult animal was rescued from a drainage pipeline in Modinagar.

In February, another leopard attacked and injured 10 people at the Ghaziabad district court before being tranquilized and captured.

The DFO said that the forest department is also taking steps to prevent leopards from entering human settlements.

“We have asked farmers to keep their sugarcane fields free of tall grass and bushes, which leopards use as hiding places,” he said.

He added that the department is also conducting awareness campaigns in villages near forests to educate people about how to avoid conflict with leopards.