Pune: The leopard spotted at Pune International Airport continues to make headlines, as efforts to capture the animal have yet to succeed. Despite entering a trap cage set by the forest department, the leopard managed to avoid capture during the recent attempts.
Mahadev Mohite, Deputy Conservator of Forests for Pune Division, provided an update on the search efforts, saying, “As of May 4, which marks International Leopard Day, no leopard movement was observed overnight. We’re now repositioning our camera traps at newly identified sensitive locations with the help of a dog squad. No direct sighting of the leopard has occurred so far. We are actively monitoring the situation with 13 camera traps, 4 trap cages, and 4 live monitoring cameras. We will continue the surveillance tonight as we did previously.”
Mohite further explained, “The leopard is still moving through the area, but due to the no-fly zone, drones cannot be used for the operation. Instead, we are relying on advanced camera trap techniques. Our primary concern is to safely trap the leopard without putting its life at risk, especially since there are long drainage tunnels in the area. We want to prevent the leopard from entering these tunnels.”
The search began after the leopard was first spotted on April 28, triggering a joint operation between the forest department and the wildlife rescue NGO RESQ. Since then, the teams have been closely monitoring the animal’s movements on the grounds of the air force station, which shares its runway with the civilian airport.
