Bareilly: Residents of villages adjoining the defunct rubber factory on the outskirts of the city heaved a sigh of relief after the forest department on Saturday claimed that they have not found any fresh pugmarks of a leopard which had taken refuge there and it had left the premises. The big cat had been spotted in the factory complex for a month.Officials said as winter is the mating season of leopards, it may be on its way back to the forest in search of a mate.The locals had earlier claimed sighting “pugmarks of a leopard” but PP Singh, conservator of forests, Bareilly circle, said, “The marks belonged to the duck family. The pugmarks which we found on rubber factory campus were five days old. The leopard may have gone to the forest for mating.”An adult leopard had moved into the campus in the first week of December last year. According to forest officials, this leopard was living in the rubber factory before the arrival of a tiger in March last year. Due to the presence of a tiger, it had left the factory. During operation tiger, forest teams had found old pugmarks of a leopard there. After the tiger came to the factory, leopard movement was detected in adjoining villages of the area. After the tiger was tranquilized, the leopard returned to the factory.

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