Udaipur, October 7, 2024 - Till yesterday, October 6, success eluded the emergency response team (ERT) sent from Jaipur by the Forest Department to capture the man-eater leopard, which has claimed the lives of several people in Udaipur district. The team had found no trace of the man-eater nor were any pugmarks to be found.

Yesterday, the leopard attacked a cow near the Shivalik Dam in Vijay Bawdi, suggesting it is still moving around in the thick forests of Vijay Bawdi and Madarda. This gave rise to panic among the villagers. On October 3, the animal was seen in Kelwon Ka Kheda when it attempted to attack two people. Last evening, the movement of the leopard was again spotted by villagers at a short distance from Kelwon Ka Kheda, but there is suspicion that there might be another leopard in the area.

The search operation has intensified with more teams joining in and additional trap cameras have been set up. According to Dr Naresh Soni, Gogunda SDM, 13 teams at the panchayat level are participating in the search along with 12 shooters. A total of five monitoring groups have been formed. The operations are being led by CCF Wildlife Jaipur, Dr T. Mohan Raj. Also participating in the search are Sariska Field Director Sangram Singh and Ramgarh Vishdhari DCF Sanjeev Sharma.

Now, from today, October 7, a second ERT team will take over and run the special operation till October 9.  Member of this team include Additional Principal Chief Wildlife Warden (Wildlife) Rajesh Gupta, Ranthambore Field Director Anoop KR and Keoladeo National Park (Bharatpur) DCF Manas Singh.

Source: Media Reports

Where is sharp-shooter Nawab Shafat Ali Khan?

While the ERT struggles to locate the man-eater leopard, queries have risen regarding the whereabouts of the sharp-shooter from Hyderabad, Nawab Shafat Ali Khan, who, on October 2,  had officially been invited by Deputy Conservator of Forest, Udaipur (North), Ajay Chittora to join in the search operations.

When UT contacted Khan, the marksman replied that he had decided to go back home as he “had not been approached by the administration except for the first day of my stay in Udaipur”. On that day he had been taken to visit the forest areas where the attacks were continuing. After that, Khan said, he was not contacted by the officials to accompany the teams on their search missions.

“I had been issued a letter (see attached below) authorised to carry out tranquilising operations but this can be done only in the day and since the animal is not sighted in the day, it is not possible to carry out this task,” he said. He further said that for tranquillising, specific drugs are required and these can only be accessed through a prescribed certificate which was not made available to him by the authorities.

“Therefore, I began to feel that I was not needed despite being called, hence made the decision to leave”, said the man who has more than 40 operations under his belt.

When UT contacted Sunil Chidri, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF), Udaipur, to confirm this, the CCF said he was unaware of the whereabouts of Shafat Ali Khan.