An eerie silence enveloped Kailasagiri on Monday as the popular tourist spot remained closed for the third consecutive day with the suspense over a leopard being on the prowl in the vicinity remaining unresolved. Many tourists and visitors who drove down to the place saw a board that mentioned that the park was closed as presence of a feline was suspected. A mobile camp consisting of 11 forest officials has been deployed to keep a tab on any animal movement in the Seethakonda range. Five camera traps are placed in the main tracks of the hill area while a trap cage with a goat is kept in the nights. The forest officials are leaving no stone unturned to monitor the spot even as situational evidence does not indicate any conclusive result of the presence of leopard.
Chief Conservator of Forest Rahul Pandey told The Hindu : “The pug marks spotted in the area are inconclusive. These could be of dogs too. The rocky surface of the area makes it further difficult to ascertain if the pug marks are indeed of a leopard. We did not find any scat or scrapings which were generally spotted when a leopard is around.” On Friday night, a security guard claimed to have spotted a leopard following which the area was cordoned off.
The camera trap on Sunday recorded two sambars and a porcupine while on Monday no animal footage was seen. The presence of stray dogs also indicates that there may not be any leopards in the vicinity. “Dogs comprise a major portion of leopards’ prey base, especially for those leopards that live close to urban areas. We saw around 20 dogs in the Kailasagiri Hill area on Monday morning and these did not seem to be disturbed. Usually the stray dogs sense the presence of leopards and stay away from the area,” said Visakhapatnam DFO Alan Chong Teron.
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Mr. Pandey said the camera traps would be stationed for two more days. The entry of the visitors to the VUDA Health Arena was also stopped. Many people who came for their morning walks were shocked to learn about the situation.
“I came out of habit for my morning walk in the Health Area and was taken aback to hear there is a leopard in the region,” said P. Ashwathi, a resident of the MVP Colony. Tourists were equally surprised. “Kailasagiri was on top of our list when we came to Vizag for a vacation. But it looks like there is a different adventure happening out here!” said Tapas Das, a tourist from West Bengal.
A video showing a leopard on a hill surfaced on social networking platforms creating flutter. It was later dismissed as hoax.
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