Srinagar, Feb 3: Fears of wild animals being present in the City is again scaring the Srinagarites. This time the Raj Bagh residents claim to have seen a big leopard roaming around there at midnight even as the officials ruled out the presence of the beast in the plush colony.
 The residents of Kitab Lane, which falls in the rare of Flood Spill Channel, said they saw the big cat moving here and there for the past two nights.
 One of the witnesses happens to be a prominent businessman Babar Chowdhary who runs the Hattrick chain of food outlets and other companies. He said on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday  at around 1:00 AM he heard a bang on his window.
 Babar, who was in the ground floor room got cautious and at once called his security and domestic help on intercom.
 The very next moment all inmates including Babar rushed out of the house fearing that thieves must be on prowl there.
 But to their surprise, Babar says, they saw the leopard running here and there in the lawn.
 “I couldn’t believe my eyes that the big leopard with typical dark spots over its body was before me,” the businessman recaps.
 But before they could act, the leopard jumped over the compound wall, which is around 13 feet high and ran away.
 After chatting for some minutes what they had seen, all of them went to sleep.
 But at just two hours later, there was big bang on the annexe roof where the domestic help lives.
 “It was the leopard again prowling on the rooftop,” Babar says.
 This time the domestic help beat the rooftop –making the cat run away.
 Besides the Chowdharies some other locals also claimed to have seen the leopard.
 A cowshed in the neighbourhood, the locals said, could have attracted the cat to the area.
 Pertinently, the area is just a mile away from the Koh-e-Sulaiman hills, from where the wild animal is feared to have sneaked into the residential area.
 But the Wildlife officials who inspected the area, have ruled out the presence of the leopard.
 A team of Wildlife officials who visited Raj Bagh in response to Greater Kashmir call said they couldn’t find any evidence of the animal.
 “Except for one particular family nobody claimed to have seen the leopard. Moreover, we searched the entire area but couldn’t find any such evidence. Not even any pugmarks,” Rashid Naqash, Wildlife Warden told Greater Kashmir.
 “Still, as a precautionary measure” he said, “the locals have been apprised about the does and don’ts if they happen to see it.”
 Naqash said in case of emergency the people could contact the wildlife officials on hotline number 9622818032.
 Pertinently, just last year the residents of Shiv Pora had made similar claims but no leopard could be traced in the area.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 3 Feb 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 3 Feb 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 4 Feb 2011 00:00:00 IST