It's hiding in bushes, avoiding humans, yet running close to habitations with dogs - perhaps completely oblivious to the fact that wildlife officials are hot on its trail. This is the first time a wild animal, a female leopard at that, is being tracked in Himachal Pradesh with the help of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
The state wildlife department is monitoring the fully grown leopard on the outskirts of Shimla through the satellite-based system to study the reasons for its straying into human habitation.
"To study its behavioural pattern and reasons for straying into human habitation, we have installed a radio collar on the leopard. This was the first time any wild animal in the state was tracked this way," Chief Wildlife Warden AK Gulati told IANS.
The wildlife wing trapped the leopard last month in Paoba village on the outskirts of Shimla and released it after placing a radio collar around its neck.
