Pigs killed in Ambazari, is leopard on way back to forest?

Nagpur: Even as the foresters spent another frustrating day attending more hoax calls on leopard in the city, the forest department is working on two theories – the leopard has reached Ambazari Biodiversity Park or it is still holed up in the city.
“We are working on the first theory as on Wednesday we noticed some dead pigs in the Ambazari forest from Pandhrabodi side. Their flesh was also consumed. This indicates that the animal must have reached the forest. The last three calls seem to be hoax as no direct or indirect evidence has been found,” said P Kalyan Kumar, CCF, Nagpur.
Officials suspect the way flesh of pigs has been consumed, it seems to be the handiwork of a leopard. The pig that was killed near Maharajbagh zoo must have been killed by dogs.
On Wednesday night, a VNIT guard claimed he saw a leopard on the premises but it turned out to be a civet cat. Later, Ankit Jain from Sadar claimed he saw the leopard jumping into the divisional commissioner’s office.
“We scanned entire area and offices including old high court building in Civil Lines but not an iota of evidence has been found either in camera traps and CCTV footage. We will capture the animal if found in the city,” said Kumar.
On Thursday at 6.10 pm, a woman caller claimed she saw a leopard near GPO office. The forest team found that it was a Siberian Husky dog owned by a resident. This was followed by another call at 8.42pm to police control room but it was found to be a male cat.
The department has appealed that if it is confirmed the animal is a leopard, people can contact 1926 or 0712-2515306 or police.
CCF Kumar said, “We have set up camera traps in Ambazari.”