Residents Panic After Spotting Leopard-Like Animal In Greater Noida Society, Forest Dept Says It's A Cat

A search and rescue operation was conducted by the forest department after panic gripped a housing society in Greater Noida (west) when people complained of spotting a leopard. Forest officials, however, said it was phishing cat.

The leopard sighting spread panic among residents of the Ajnara Le Garden society in Sector 16 of Greater Noida (West), also known as Noida Extension.

While the team of Gautam Buddh Nagar forest department rushed to the spot in the afternoon, experts from Meerut were also roped in for the task later in the day, according to an official.

According to a NDTV report, the Divisional Forest Officer Pramod Kumar Srivastava, who look at the videos taken by guards in the society said that the animal appears to be a fishing cat, a species of cat that has leopard-like spots.

A similar leopard alert was issued by the society exactly one week ago when on December 27 the society’s maintenance department informed the residents about a feline’s suspected presence on the premises and urged them to avoid outdoor ventures and take caution.

“The department got an alert from the Ajnara Le Garden society this afternoon that a leopard has been spotted in the basement of one of the under-construction towers in the society. Our team immediately reached the spot and launched the search operation to rescue the leopard,” Divisional Forest Officer Pramod Kumar Srivastava said.

The society has around 16 residential towers of which five to six are under-construction. The big cat has been spotted by society workers in one of the under-construction towers’ basement and a couple of blurred pictures of the leopard have also emerged, according to a resident of Ajnara Le Garden.

A team of forest department from Meerut was also engaged in the search and rescue operation, the resident said.

“We got a one-line message from the society’s maintenance this afternoon that a leopard has been spotted in the society and we have been asked to stay indoors,” Mukesh Gupta, a society resident, told PTI.

He said fear has gripped society residents and those working there.

He said a security guard had on Sunday evening also claimed spotting a leopard but the information was not entertained by the locals and junked as rumour.