People living in Gayatri Vihar Colony of Bhupatwala woke up on Monday morning to find a leopard attempting to prey on a dog in the Bhuvaneshwari Devi temple premises. The priest and his sons tried to scare the leopard away which then hid in a bathroom nearby. later, the forest department officials rescued and sent the leopard estimated to be three years old it to the Chidiapur rescue centre.
The priest Bhaskar Prasad Sharma said that he had awakened his sons on sighting the leopard in the morning. They tried to scare the big cat away which sought shelter in a nearby bathroom after which the priest's sons locked the bathroom door from outside. They dialed 100 which brought two policemen to the site who then informed the forest department.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Haridwar forest range officer Mahesh Semwal said, “On receiving the information, our team reached the temple around 5 am. A cage was placed to catch the leopard. After four hours’ operation, the leopard was caged and shifted to the Chidiyapur rescue centre. Medical examination confirmed that leopard is safe. However, it is under the medical team’s observation.”
Some locals were talking of two leopards being in the temple area but the department ascertained the presence of only one with no pug marks or other signs to establish presence of another big cat in the area, stress officials.
This is not the first time when a leopard entered a residential area bordering the Rajaji Tiger Reserve (RTR). leopard sightings are reported from time to time from the Bhupatwala and Haripur Kalan areas close to the RTR boundary. With human settlements expanding and growing population pressure on the environment, the instances of leopard entering residential areas can be gauge from the fact that about six leopards are stated to have been rescued by the department from various residential areas of Haridwar forest division in the past one year.