Hyderabad: A leopard was spotted inside the campus of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics ( Icrisat ) on Sunday night, four days after a hunt was launched to trace it.An adult feline, which is believed to have strayed into the vast Icrisat complex at Patancheru located on the city outskirts from a forest nearby is giving a tough time to forest officials, playing hide and seek on the 1,390-hectare campus.Jayashree Balasubramanian, head of communications department, Icrisat, said: “There was a suspected leopard sighting inside the campus last week by one of our security personnel. So, we immediately informed government officials and they have also responded. We have been taking all possible steps as per their procedure.”As soon as the forest department was alerted, a team along with the district forest officer was sent to the campus to gather evidence of the sighting. After four days of monitoring and looking for pug marks, going through CCTV footage, and combing operations, forest officials spotted the big cat on Monday.“Our team has spotted the leopard and recorded the video of the animal inside the campus,” said A Shankaran, a senior official of the forest department. “We are taking measures to safely relocate the animal to a nearby forest.”The leopard is believed to have wandered into Icrisat after crossing the Outer Ring Road from Vikarabad or Pargi.In a similar incident, a seven-year-old leopard, weighing about 70 kg, had strayed into Icrisat in 2014, and had remained holed up in the thick plantations of the campus for at least five months before authorities captured it and shifted it to safety.

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