Senate Committee told leopard came in residential area and  IWMB talking to experts to release it

Islamabad: (Staff Reporter) A Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change was told the leopard that came to a residential area, giving residents of a housing society a scare, was a wild animal and that the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) was talking to international experts to release it back into its habitat.

According to the source, “We suspect that it came from the forest cover behind Sihala where leopard sightings had been reported. We are talking to international experts on how best to release it back into the wild,” informed Vaqar Zakaria, member of the IWMB. The committee met to have discussions over various issues such as the leopard roaming in a residential area in Islamabad, budgetary proposals relating to Public Sector Development Fund (PSDP) and the Pakistan Environment Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2023.

As per details the members of the committee were informed that the leopard was keeping good health and that the IWMB was certain that the common leopard, which was a protected animal under law, was not a pet and had not escaped from captivity.

Furthermore the board then decided that leopards were nocturnal animals and this one crept into the settled area in the cover of darkness. However, at the moment, the animal was being kept in a 30×40 cell, where it was stable but was agitated. “Wild animals do not know how to settle in confinements,” Vaqar Zakaria said.