3 years on, leopard spotted at Sukhna sanctuary

After more than three years, a fully grown leopard was spotted in the Kansal area of the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary.

The leopard was captured by a camera trap in the Kansal area of the sanctuary on November 17, said Navneet Kumar Srivastava, Deputy Conservator of Forests and Wildlife, UT. “The presence of a big cat indicates the effective management and healthy habitat for wildlife in the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary,” he added. In April 2021, a leopard was spotted near a water body in the Kansal forests. The trap had been laid by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, as part of the wildlife census carried out by the UT Forest Department. In early May, 2021, leopard pugmarks were spotted at the sanctuary during the second wildlife census.

In March 2020, a leopard had strayed into Sector 5 during the lockdown. It was caught and released in the sanctuary at Morni Hills in Panchkula. In January, 2022, the jungle cat and barking deer were spotted for the first time in the sanctuary.

Spread over an area of 2,600 hectares in the UT, the sanctuary has a large number of waterholes, grazing grounds and good plantation, which provide an ideal habitat for wildlife in the sanctuary.

The Department of Forests and Wildlife, UT, carried out a wildlife survey of the sanctuary from May 5 to 9, 2021, with technical assistance by the WII. As per the report of the WII, Sambar was the most abundant ungulate species in the sanctuary with the highest density similar to the Rajaji Tiger Reserve. The main animals spotted at the sanctuary include sambar, chital, pangolin (anteater), wild boar, jackal, small Indian civet, jungle cat, porcupine, Hanuman langur, rhesus monkey, Indian hare, common mongoose and three-striped palm squirrel.