Residents protest against forest dept for failing to locate leopard in G Noida society

Noida: Five days after the Gautam Budh Nagar forest department launched a search operation to find a leopard spotted at Ajnara Le Garden high-rise on Tuesday, over 200 residents of the society came on the streets on Saturday to protest against the authorities.

The residents alleged laxity on the part of the concerned authorities in finding the big cat. This came a day after the forest department officials stated that they will end the operation by Saturday if the animal is not found.

According to officials, the latest leopard sighting was reported on the night of January 3. The first sighting of the animal was on December 27 by a security guard of the same society.

At around noon on Saturday, over 200 residents gathered outside the barricaded under-construction site of the society where forest department teams have been camping to search for the leopard.

“Since December 27, residents of the society have been living in fear. On Saturday, when we read news reports that the forest department is going to call off the search operation if they do not find the leopard, we became agitated and decided to seek answers from the authorities. We gathered outside the barricaded area to ask officials why the team has not been able to find the leopard”, said Mukesh Gupta, a resident of the society who led the protest.

Once the residents reached the spot, they tried to break the gates of the barricaded area of the society where the forest team was stationed as none of the officials came out to talk to them, alleged residents.

Local police personnel were also on the spot to maintain law and order, said a senior officer of Bisrakh police station.

“There were around 200 residents who were trying to break the temporary gates of the under-construction site of the society and raised slogans against the forest department. A police force was deployed there to maintain law and order,” said Anil Kumar, station house officer (SHO), Bisrakh police station.

“It was almost after 30 minutes that divisional forest officer PK Srivastava assured us that the team is not calling off the search operation. After the assurance, the protest was called off,” said Gupta.

On Friday, the DFO had said that they will end operations by Saturday if the animal is not found.

DFO Srivastava did not respond for a comment on Saturday despite repeated attempts.