NEW DELHI: Days after reports of a leopard sighting on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, forest officials on Monday said the possibility of the animal still being present cannot be dismissed, though no concrete evidence has emerged.
Authorities have placed a cage and four camera traps around the campus, but so far, no pug marks, kills, or signs of movement have been detected. “The traps have not recorded any animal movement in the forest. However, as a precaution, the equipment will remain in place for some time,” said JNU security in-charge Naveen Yadav.
The scare began Friday when a student claimed to have spotted a leopard on a tree behind Kaveri hostel. Rumors quickly spread on WhatsApp, linking the sighting to a student in room number 15 of the hostel. That student, who is visually impaired, later clarified he had been misidentified and dismissed the messages as false.
Despite the confusion, forest officials remain cautious. “Our teams are deployed at multiple locations. So far, we have only one account of the leopard sighting. We are also surveying the adjoining forest area,” a senior official said.
University authorities confirmed that no evidence of a big cat has surfaced in three days of monitoring. Still, the reports have unsettled students on campus, where the leopard scare continues to cause anxiety.
