Leopard sighted again in Greater Noida? Forest department officials say no evidence

A week after a leopard was sighted in a group housing society in Greater Noida (West), a maintenance worker's claims of seeing the animal again has raised fresh concerns even as forest department officials, who have been monitoring the area, on Wednesday said there was so far no evidence of the feline's presence.

This comes after a search and rescue operation was launched last week by the Gautam Buddha Nagar forest department at the Ajnara Le Garden society in Sector 16 where the leopard was first spotted on January 3.

While forest teams and experts from Meerut, Agra and Ghaziabad were roped in and camera traps and cages were also installed at the site for over a week, the stranded leopard, which was believed to be hiding in the basement of an under-construction tower, could not be traced, a senior official said.

Amit Kumar, a local resident, said the fresh alarm over the suspected presence of the leopard was raised on Tuesday evening by a maintenance worker of the society.

"The maintenance department of the society are denying the claims of the leopard's presence but the development has left residents worried for their safety," Kumar claimed.

A senior official said teams of forest department are stationed at the society and the under construction area, where the leopard could be hiding, has been cordoned off.

"No evidence of the leopard's presence has been recorded in the trap cameras, cages or CCTVs installed in the area so far. We are continuing to monitor the situation," the officer said.

The forest department will hold a final review of the situation on Saturday to take a call on whether the additional teams of experts, trap cameras, etc are required anymore at the site, the officer added.