By Pawan Tripathi

The residents of a housing society in Greater Noida have been living in constant dread and panic, with a leopard on the loose since earlier this week.

The leopard was first sighted at an under-construction site in the Ajnara Le Garden society on January 3, and a Forest Department team has been trying to trap it ever since.

The team reached the location after a video of the animal surfaced online.

Several teams from other districts, including Special Rangers, have been carrying out search and rescue operations for the big cat, but to no avail.

With claims of the leopard being seen by people along with its videos, the authorities want to make sure whether the leopard is still lurking around in the premises.

The Forest Department team and other officials from Meerut and Agra have been camping in the society for the same.

Poultry and goats have been left as baits to trap the animal, while a big cage has also been installed in the premises.

Along with this, the team has also laid nets to catch the leopard.

A team of more than 40 officers and employees of the Forest Department have been engaged in the operations.

District Forest Officer (DFO) Pramod Kumar apprised that cameras and camera traps were being installed in the area.

He said that the animal had not been sighted again, so verifying its presence at the location was crucial.

Kumar added that the team had been continuously working to rescue the big cat, but had been facing difficulties due to the large area.

A team of 70 from the Forest Department conducted a search operation in the under-construction tower, on Friday morning.

Police personnel have also been deployed in the society to prevent people from entering the area.

The DFO said that a 42 metre-high Hydraulic platform, to monitor the animal, was arranged from the Fire Department after not achieving any success by using drones.

Many surrounding societies have issued advisories regarding the presence of the wild animal and have instructed the residents to be extremely cautious, and not go outside unnecessarily.

Nikhil Shukla, a resident of the Ajnara society, said that despite living there for many years, he had never felt this unsafe.

Shukla fears that he might get attacked by the animal when he gets comes down from his home on the 21st floor to go to office.

Since none of the residents of the society are seen outside, it feels like the lockdown period during the Covid-19 pandemic, he adds.

This is not the first instance of a leopard being sighted in the district.

Earlier, a leopard-like animal was seen in the CCTV footage installed in the National Thermal Corporation (NTPC) plant in Dadri.

Along with this, a leopard was rescued from an empty plot in Sadullapur village of Greater Noida West, leopard and fishing cats were also sighted around Yamuna's Khadar belt.

A CCTV footage of a leopard wandering in Surajpur Industrial area, at night also came to light. (SJ/IANS)