Hyderabad: ‘Leopard’ video keeps people on toes
Forest Department officials who verified CCTV footage in the Shamshabad area said they could not find any pugmarks
Hyderabad: A video that shows a leopard running along a tarred road and then jumping over a high wired fence is keeping people tense in the Shamshabad area, especially in the vicinity of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport after reports that the fence in the video was the one around the airport’s runway. Officials, however, are yet to confirm whether it was a leopard and whether the video is from Hyderabad.
The video clip, apparently from a CCTV feed with the date showing as of 11 pm on Sunday, went viral with reports suggesting that the road was the one between Shamshabad and Tukkuguda and the fence being the airport’s compound wall near Tondupally. Srinivas, a motorist passing by the route in his car, also claimed to have seen the leopard and called Dial-100 and informed the police. On being alerted, patrol mobile car staff from Shamshabad reached the spot apart from alerting Forest Department officials.
However, the Forest Department officials who rushed to the spot and checked for pugmarks and verified the footage from surveillance cameras in the surroundings, said they could not find any pugmarks of a leopard.
“We thoroughly examined every spot where the wild animal was claimed to have been seen but found no pugmarks anywhere in the surroundings. We are still on the job to confirm if it was a leopard or some jungle cat,” a Forest official said. He said that there had been instances where slightly large jungle cats were seen and mistaken to be leopards.
“There is every possibility of pugmarks being found here had there been a leopard. Small cats do not leave any such marks. Moreover, we doubt if a leopard with its heavy structure could have jumped the high wall if the wall in the video is that of the airport,” the official added.
Also read:
Watch: Leopard ‘sighted’ near Rajiv Gandhi International Airport
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