The Hyderabad airport had an unusual, four-legged visitor near its premises early on Monday morning. The CCTV footage from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) showed a leopard walking along a well-lit road adjoining the airport boundary wall. The animal then climbed the wall and jumped over the boundary wall with barbed wires and disappeared into a thicket.
The Forest department officials told TNM that the leopard was caught on the airport's CCTV camera. The airport authorities then officially reached out to the Forest department officials, who carried out a search to find the animal.
A Shankaran, Deputy Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), said, “The locality is a natural habitat for leopards, there is access to water, and the locale is rich in prey such as peacocks, porcupines and hares. It’s a vast area with a lot of thick vegetation and hiding places. The animal has no reason to move into human settlements and so there is no need for any alarm.”
The officer denied news reports which said that the leopard had moved towards villages near Shamshabad region. Forest department officials searched for the leopard on early Monday morning and later in the day. Airport officials said they will keep a vigil over the area for any sightings of the leopard via CCTV cameras.
“If residents in the area encounter the leopard, we urge them not to panic, not make sudden movements and stay still like a statue while making eye contact. This is how Forest officials have been trained to handle a situation when coming across a leopard or a tiger,” explained Shankaran.
The Telangana Forest department has a count of 334 leopards in the state.
Leopard prowls on #Hyderabad airport premises last night for about 10 minutes. Jumps off the fencing near cargo area and runs towards Rashidguda. Forest dept gathering clues. @RGIAHyd pic.twitter.com/C5Ye8n5H9Z
— krishnamurthy (@krishna0302) January 18, 2021