MUMBAI: C33-Delta, the two-year old female sub-adult who was recently wrongfully captured by the forest authorities and then set free in the wild, was caught on CCTV cameras of housing societies in the Gokuldham area of Goregaon East.
The CCTV footage was shared by residents with the forest department on Monday.
Local residents said the leopard had visited the area in the early hours of Sunday, January 15. G Mallikarjuna, chief conservator and director, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, confirmed the identity of the leopard. “We have come across a CCTV footage of a leopard roaming in the premises of the buildings in Gokuldham area in Goregaon East. The forest department and team of researchers are continuously monitoring its activity and there is no need for panic,” he said.
The CCTV footages show the cat on a high wall and then moving among parked vehicles.
The forest department has deployed teams to patrol the area and also create awareness among residents. In a span of 50 days starting late August last year, a female sub-adult had caused panic in Aarey Colony as it attacked at least nine people on separate occasions in different locations in the colony. As the forest department set traps to capture the two-year old sub-adult female leopard, it first captured C33-Delta, the sibling of C32 who was causing the attacks. C32 was finally caught in the first week of November, and on November 12, C33-Delta was released after being radio-collared.
C33-Delta is not part of the forest department’s study on SGNP leopards.
