Panic continued to grip the Check-Post area at Sevoke Road in Siliguri on Thursday after forest officials failed to track down a leopard that had strayed near a popular shopping mall on Wednesday evening.

The forest department has laid a cage with a goat as bait at the Salugara forest range under the Baikunthapur Forest Division in connection with the leopard sighting.

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Officials and staff of the department also conducted a thorough search of the area from on Wednesday evening till Thursday morning, but in vain. The Sukna wildlife squad and the police rushed to the spot as tension ran high at the Limbu Busti area after the leopard was sighted on Wednesday.

“There were three to four clear sightings of the animal, after which a tranquilizing team from the Sukna wildlife reached the spot and began a search operation,” a forest official said.

A security guard of a godown near the mall, Gopal Gupta, who spotted the leopard, said, “Yesterday(Wednesday) at 10 pm, I saw the leopard perched on a rooftop nearby. However, when a crowd gathered, the animal leaped down and fled.”

“It was a huge leopard and people who caught a glimpse of it are still in fear. Moreover, many dogs are also missing from the locality for the past few days,” he added.

Range officer of the Belakoba Forest Range, Sanjay Dutta, who led the search operation, said: “We have searched the entire area, but we were not able to trace the leopard. We are sure that the leopard has fled away to the jungles.”

Meanwhile, Divisional Forest Officer, Baikunthapur division, Umarani N, said a trap has been laid to catch the animal. “We received information on Wednesday that a stray leopard was reported. We immediately alerted forest officials and conducted a search operation, but owing to the darkness, the search was difficult. Forest officials patrolled the area the entire night,” she said.