Jungle cat, not leopard near Hyderabad Airport: Forest officials

Hyderabad, Feb 8 (SocialNews.XYZ) Ending all speculations about sighting of a leopard near the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Shamshabad here, forest officials on Monday clarified that it is only a jungle cat.

The camera traps set up by the Forest Department near the airport recorded images of a jungle cat lurking in the area. It clarified that no signs of a leopard were found in the airport vicinity.

Reports of presence of a leopard in the area had created fear among local people. As the airport employees were also scared, the Forest Department had set up camera traps.

"The cameras have captured the images of a healthy jungle cat. We have found no signs of a leopard," Shamshabad Divisional Forest official C.H. Shivaiah said, asking people not to panic.

The department had Sunday set up two trap cages with bait in the airport vicinity following reports that a leopard was sighted a few days ago.

On receiving information about sighting of a leopard and CCTV camera reportedly capturing image of the animal, the forest officials inspected the spot and installed 10 camera traps. They installed 10 more camera traps and two trap cages on Sunday to catch the leopard.

As the airport officials had alerted the Forest Department over the leopard killing wild boars, the forest officials swung into action. However, no trace of pug marks was found.

An analysis of carcasses of wild boars also revealed that they were killed by dogs. The cameras revealed only presence of wild boars and dogs.

On Monday, the department released the images of a jungle cat captured in cameras and once again clarified that there are no signs of a leopard in the area.

Source: IANS