A sense of unease has gripped residents of Bengaluru’s Electronic City, known as India’s Silicon Valley, after a CCTV footage captured a leopard roaming around the Phase 1 toll plaza went viral on social media. The incident has sparked concern about the growing issue of wildlife encroachment in urban areas.
The leopard, a large wild cat, was spotted moving from the Panak India Company area to the Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF) ground around 3 am today. The Bengaluru police have declared the area on high alert and have informed forest officials about the sighting. Local authorities and forest department officials are actively searching for the animal.
Reports suggest that the leopard was seen crossing an overpass close to the toll plaza, a busy hub for numerous software companies. The CCTV footage shows the animal crossing the street and then turning back towards the NTTF compound.
“We got an update from the camera near the toll gate that a leopard had passed near the compound wall. Precautionary checks were conducted on the campus. The forest department officials also came to reconfirm and said that no leopard was seen,” NDTV reported Sunil Joshi, Principal of NTTF, as saying. However, Joshi claimed that a camera image suggested the movement of a leopard from the compound wall. NTTF, a training center, is taking all the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of students and staff.
“We have checked all the rooms and the CCTV footage, and there is no trace of this leopard here so far. The leopard was spotted walking near the pathway next to the compound, but we don’t know where it went next,” Joshi added.
This is not the first time Bengaluru residents have reported leopard sightings. A few weeks ago, a leopard was spotted in the city’s Jigni industrial area, located near Bannerghatta National Park. The recent sightings highlight the increasing vulnerability of urban areas to wildlife encroachment, raising concerns about public safety and the need for better urban planning to mitigate such incidents.
