Forest officials from Vadodara were pressed into service after reports came in that a leopard might have strayed into the premises of the Airport Authority of India’s Wireless Transmission Centre on Harni Road.

But the officials could not come to any conclusion even after a 90-minute long rigorous search. Range Forest Official M R Gadhvi told Newsline that the officials could not identify the animal by seeing its pugmarks as it was near a waterbody on the office premises.

The incident took place around 9 am when a guard, Vinod Sharma, resumed his morning duty after his colleague left.

“I saw the leopard running across the length of the premises towards the Metro Hospital,” added Sharma.

Although the hospital has been a haunt for leopards after a reported recovery of a fully-grown leopard in the basement of the hospital, the hospital administration denied seeing any animal after conducting a search.

“This wooded area is frequented by leopards who come from Halol side in search of cattle and other animals,” added Gadhvi.

He added that he and his team reached the spot around 10.30 am and searched the premises of the AAI’s Wireless Transmission Centre. “We suspect that the big cat had visited this area. However, we have to examine the pug marks near the waterbody again and then only we can confirm whether it was a leopard or not,” he added.

It was in January 2007 that a leopard was found hiding inside the toilet of a resident in Amit Nagar, close to the AAI premises and then reportedly another leopard was found in the Metro Hospital’s basement.