Nagpur: Was there a leopard in city? Was it a ghost?

Recorded after nine days on camera traps in the midst of claims and counter-claims about its presence close to human settlements in the city, now questions have been raised whether the ‘ghost’ leopard of IT Park had really moved through well-populated parts of the city?

Nagpur was abuzz with rumours when the leopard was first sighted on May 28 morning in the bathroom of one Narendra Chakole who resides near IT Park.

It then leaped over to his neighbour Kishore Jagtap’s compound in Gayatri Nagar, on the edge of the isolated National Power Training Institute (NPTI).

Citing the example of Aarey Colony near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), Mumbai, wildlife biologist Vidya Athreya says, “Leopards are frequent visitors to Aarey. They also enter residential complexes and housing societies in search of prey but rarely harm humans. Something similar may have happened in Nagpur.”

On May 29, the leopard was sighted by an IT company security guard Omprakash Naidu in the wee hours. Its hazy image was also captured by a CCTV camera. “I’ve not seen the animal since then,” recalls Naidu. This was the so-called last evidence about the leopard’s presence.

Even as news spread like wildfire, on May 30, around 10.30pm, one Atharva Pande claimed the leopard crossed the road and jumped the walled agriculture field of Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV) in Bajaj Nagar.

Though the sequence of events matched the sighting, forest officials are still perplexed. They are not sure whether the leopard really entered the field. At 11pm, Sameer Pisal, the guard on night duty at the PDKV guest house in Bajaj Nagar, too claimed to have seen the leopard preying on a dog outside the guard cabin.

“As the leopard pounced on the dog, it ran and collided against the main gate and started barking loudly. When I came out to check, I was shocked to see the leopard. It waited for a few seconds and vanished towards the PDKV VC’s bungalow on the same premises,” says Pisal.

Even as a frantic search at the sprawling PDKV area came to a naught, the mystery further deepened when a woman labourer, Ashabai Nikhare, claimed she spotted the leopard on May 31 at 3.20pm on the nullah wall at the edge of the Maharajbagh zoo. “Having worked for 14 years in the zoo, we cannot doubt Nikhare’s identification of the animal,” says Dr Sunil Bawaskar, the officer in charge of the zoo.

“Various studies have also shown that leopards frequent areas in the city by avoiding human habitations during the day. Across India, there may be many cities where leopards overcome human habitations every night without any untoward incident,” says Dr Mayukh Chatterjee, head, human-wildlife conflict division, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI).

“Considering the behaviour of leopards, we too did not discredit the woman worker and hence placed trap cages near the zoo. Though a pig was killed on May 31 night, I’m surprised there was no iota of direct or indirect evidence about the big cat,” says P Kalyan Kumar, CCF, Nagpur.

On June 1, even as foresters were busy scanning nullahs and vegetation in nearby areas and attending hoax calls about the sighting of the leopard in Civil Lines near the old high court building and GPO, on June 2, the teams found four pigs that were killed and their flesh consumed in the Ambazari reserve forest on the Pandhrabodi side. This means that the pigs must have been killed on the night of June 1.

If the pigs in Ambazari were killed on the night of June 1, then who killed the solo pig near the zoo the same night? “I doubt whether the pig near the zoo nullah was preyed on by the leopard. It seemed to be the handiwork of feral dogs the way the animal was consumed,” says Dr Bharat Singh Hada, deputy conservator.

Even wildlife veterinarian Dr Syed Bilal Ali, who worked as a back-up during the drive, says, “It’s hard to believe that there was a leopard in the bathroom of Chakole, who had said that on seeing the beast he came out and that the animal followed him and escaped by stepping on his left foot.”

“Can you believe it? It may have been a civet cat as the NPTI premises is a good habitat for civets. It seems to be a case of mistaken identity. Why wasn’t a single pugmark traced between May 28 and June 1, when it was claimed that the animal was moving in the city through muddy patches and nullahs,” counters Dr Bilal.

“The pig that was killed near Maharajbagh seems to be the handiwork of stray dogs. Even when the kill was put in trap cages to lure the leopard, two dogs were trapped. They must have entered the cage to feast on their kill,” say foresters.

CCF Kumar too admits that all the last three calls from passers-by and citizens received on June 1 were hoaxes. The verification after spot visits and identification of the animal recalled by people resembled a tomcat and a Siberian Husky dog in Civil Lines and a civet cat spotted by a VNIT security guard.

“We worked on the first theory of the leopard entering the 758-hectare Ambazari forest. Earlier, on December 5, 2019, a leopard from the Gorewada reserve forest off Katol Road was sighted at the Ambazari Biodiversity Park by a forest labourer. Our fears came true when the leopard was caught on camera on June 6. The big cat was again captured on camera on June 10 and is still in Ambazari. We fear it might become a resident of the biodiversity park,” said Kumar.

In the meanwhile, the leopard’s presence will remain a legendary story.

SPOTTED MARKS

May 28: Leopard spotted in bathroom of Narendra Chakole in Gayatri Nagar. It later entered house of Kishore Jagtap

May 29: IT company security Omprakash Naidu spots leopard at 2am. It was also captured by the CCTV camera

May 30: Big cat sighted by Atharva Pande crossing the road and jumping into the PDKV farm in Bajaj Nagar

May 31: At 3.20pm, leopard spotted on nullah near Maharajbagh Zoo by woman worker Ashabai Nikhare

June 1: Pig found killed near zoo but no leopard evidence

June 1: Foresters have field day attending prank calls in Civil Lines

June 2: Four pigs found killed inside Ambazari forest

June 6: Leopard captured by camera traps near water filter plant gate inside forest

June 10: Same leopard again captured by camera trap in Ambazari. Animal still there, say officials