Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A leopard was spotted roaming near townships along Indore bypass road on Tuesday late night. The CCTV cameras installed at the colony gates shows the leopard wandering around Silver Wood and Silver Nature near Silver Spring-2 township in Indore. Both the colonies are adjacent to Ralamandal Wildlife Sanctury.
In the video, a leopard is seen roaming on the township road. On receiving the information, the rescue staff of the forest department reached on the spot to investigate. The people of the township are still in panic.
Ranger Yogesh Yadav said that there are more dogs in the townships and colonies located along the bypass. Therefore, it is possible that the leopard seen in Silver Spring may be roaming for hunting. However, this is the first time its movement has been detected in this township.
DFO Mahendra Singh Solanki said, "The leopard spotted near townships along Indore bypass road had come from Ralamandal Wildlife Sanctuary. However, it returned back to his home on late Wednesday morning and has been located inside Ralamandal Wildlife Sanctuary," he said.
This is not the first time a leopard was seen near the residential areas. A few months ago, a leopard was spotted near Mhow Army Campus.
DFO Solanki said the forest department has set up goat traps to bait the leopards roaming outside and teams have been deployed there. Apart from this, monitoring is also being done through CCTV cameras to catch the leopards.
Solanki further said that there are 60 leopards in Indore division. Their movement is in Indore, Mhow, Manpur and Choral areas. Maximum movement occurs in Ralamandal, because there are dense forests here. Due to this, they find animals like rabbit, nilgai, hyena, fox, chital, wild boar, jackal, chinkara here for hunting. Leopards never attack humans directly.
As IIT Indore, is also located in the forest area, there is movement of leopards there too, but it is a rumour that three leopards are active there. The department kept two cages there for a long time, but their movement was not detected.
No pug marks found
Before Silver Spring, leopards were seen in Rani Bagh, Limbodi. One of the big cats had also attacked a girl. The forest department will also install cages in the township so that the leopard can be caught. As the leopard was walking on a concrete, its pug marks could not be found. The leopard has been roaming in the IIT campus and the Army campus for the last 25 days, but has not been caught.
