PRAYAGRAJ, Feb. 5 -- Special teams of the Forest Department have been deployed across Prayagraj's forest-fringe areas to monitor leopard movement after a couple of incidents of the wild cats straying into villages triggered alarm.

The vigilance has been intensified in the three development blocks of Meja, Shankargarh and Koraon, as well as parts of the trans-Ganga region. According to divisional forest officer (DFO) Arvind Yadav, leopard presence is not unusual in these blocks of the trans-Yamuna belt because they lie close to the forested stretches of neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.

Explaining the species' behaviour, DFO said leopards are territorial and stealthy animals, known to fiercely protect their range. Their occasional entry into ...