Apparent leopard sighting triggers panic in sector 57, Gurgaon

An apparent sighting of a leopard in up-scale Sushant Lok III residential enclave in Gurgaon's sector 57, set off alarm bells among the residents earlier this week on Tuesday evening. This unfolded into nearly four-hour of drama that culminated into an unfruitful search operation for the wild cat or any hint of its presence, including pugmarks. Incidentally, this happened just days after the Gurgaon forest department confirmed that they had obtained camera trap images of leopards and civet cats from nearby Bandhwari forest patch, a part of Aravallis.

When dna contacted people inhabitants of the residential society, they informed that it all began with a message on their WhatsApp group. "Some residents were informed about a supposed leopard sighting by the people working the society's maintenance service provider. This was then conveyed on our WhatsApp group and created panic among the residents. People began sending hectic messages on the group, asking each other to not venture out and there was much confusion and little information," said Vijay Kumar, a resident of the society.

"Dear residents, be aware from (sic) leopard, seem in SL#, search operation by police team with Rigoss security man's (sic) is going on. Please close your door and windows," this was one of the message sent to the residents, alerting them and asking them to take precautions. The Gurgaon forest department officers soon joined the police personnel in combing the entire residential enclave.

Forest officials said that their staff looked for clues and talked to people around the location where the leopard was supposedly sighted, but there was no evidence to be found. "We were all worried at the time when the authorities were searching for clues and pugmarks, but I don't think there was any sighting as such," said a resident of the society who did not wished to be named.

MD Singh, conservator of forest, Gurgaon circle said that the there was no evidence of any sighting but added that it will not be surprising to find leopards around residential areas in Gurgaon since their presence has been confirmed in Bandhwari forest. "I was personally present at Sushant Lok-III and we did not obtain any photographic evidence neither did we see any pugmarks. It may be a case that the residents so another wild cat such as the civet cat and from afar it may have looked liked a leopard," said Sinha.

Sinha added, "Our camera trapping exercise along with Wildlife Institute of India has confirmed the presence of leopards, palm civet cats, porcupines and Nilgai in the forests that are close to Gurgaon's residential and corporates enclaves. The stretch from Bandhwari to Damdama, including Manger is the contiguous patch in Aravallis of NCR and this should be protected to conserve the population of these wild animals." The area Sinha referred to spans nearly 6,000 hectares in a 30km stretch and according to sources, it has nearly 30 leopards.