Leopard seen at IAF station near Vadodara

VADODARA: A leopard was seen lurking just outside Vadodara city. It was spotted by the guards posted at the Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Darjipura on Wednesday morning. It was first seen near the golf course and then slipped into the bushes nearby.
Forest officials have set up cages in the IAF campus to nab the leopard. "I got a call on Wednesday morning that a leopard was seen in the IAF premises. The guards said that they spotted it a couple of times," said Hemant Vadhwana, wildlife activist.
The leopard's pug-marks were also seen at the IAF station. "We found the pug-marks and it seems that the leopard is about four to five years old. We have kept a cage there to trap it," said Karansinh Rajput, range forest officer (RFO), Vadodara. He added that the leopard may have crept inside the IAF campus through some drainage line.
Vadhwana said that the leopard must have come from the region around Ajwa Lake as it has a dense forest. There have been no reports of the leopard attacking or killing any bovine as none of the villagers have reported such an incident in the last two days. "They (the leopard) usually travel long distances in search of food. It must have entered the IAF station in the dark," Vadhwana said.
But the chances of it travelling further towards the city are less as leopards are shy creatures and stay away from human settlements.