AHMEDABAD: The discovery of a leopard’s carcass near Sanathal Crossroads in Sarkhej on Monday has spurred a forest department probe, which has concluded that the animal came close to the city using the riverbed route. The leopard had been knocked down by a vehicle.
The animal may have come from the direction Dholka or Nadiad, officials say. The forest department has traced its pug marks right up to the Sabarmati.
Ahmedabad deputy conservator of forests (social forestry) Sakkira Begum said: “The animal had come close to the city following a path through shrubs and had moved outside villages along the way.” Begum added: “The leopard’s pug marks were also spotted around the villages of Vanzar and Badrabad.”
The DCF said the investigation reveals that at about 8pm, farmers working in fields between Vanzar and Badrabad saw the leopard. The sighting occurred about 4km from the accident site.
She said it is now clear that the animal used the riverbed to travel. But it is not possible to determine whether it had crossed the river or had come along the banks from the Dholka side. She said that the department will check the other side of the river to ascertain if it had come from the Nadiad side. The DCF said the postmortem examination had revealed that the leopard had eaten a dog.
A senior officer in Gandhinagar said that the forest department is exploring the possibility of the leopard coming to the city from Surendranagar, via Viramgam, Bavla, and Dholka.
A leopard was spotted at an ayurveda college in Kolavada, Gandhinagar, in April 2020. Another leopard entered the sachivalaya in Gandhinagar at night in November 2018. The animal was later traced to the ravines near the sachivalaya. In both these cases, the animals had used the riverbed to travel.