Late on Friday night, the Haryana Forest department along with Dehra Dun’s Wildlife Institute of India captured a four-year-old leopard in Sohna, behind Ansal’s Golden Heights Park in Sohna hills. The relocation is now attracting the ire of Forest department officials. “We have been looking for the animal for over a month in order to capture and relocate him following an outcry by villagers about the leopard attacking their livestock,” said RP Balwan, district forest conservator.

The conservator told Newsline relocating animals is not routine and this leopard had to be captured only because of the public hue and cry. He said that even though the residents of nearby Thikli village had complained of the animal attacking their livestock, forest officials found no trace of the same when they went to inspect.

Forest officials believe it is not right to relocate animals as it unsettles their natural routines. “It breaks the harmony wild animals develop over a period of time with their natural habitat,” Balwan said. “As a forest officer, I am against capturing animals as it is their right to live in the forest and the man-animal conflict has only arisen because of rich people, who want to build their farmhouses in forests,” said Balwan. According to him, these farmhouses are illegal as they are built on forestland.

The leopard was baited with the help of a dog and will be kept at Sohna Forest department premises for a couple days till Chandigarh decides where it is to be relocated in the sparse forests of Haryana. On Saturday, the leopard underwent a routine medical and health check up and has been declared fit.

Balwan said around a month ago, forest officials had found some pug marks in the nearby areas, following which the Wildlife Institute team was called in to conduct a survey and ascertain the type of cat.