VARANASI: Forest personnel continued searching St Mary’s Convent School in the Cantonment area on Friday, October 23, after CCTV footage raised suspicion that a large animal might be a leopard. Neither a leopard nor its pugmarks had been found in the update available for this report.
The search began after security staff alerted the school administration to the footage on Thursday. The school informed the Forest Department, which sent personnel to examine the campus.
Searches continued through Thursday night and across different parts of the grounds on Friday, with particular attention to the area around the boundary wall. Equipment including a net and cage had been brought to the site.
Kashi range ranger Sanjay Kumar said a seven-member team was present and was also checking nearby areas. The department intended to retain a team until it had sufficient grounds to rule out the suspected presence.
Suspicion is not a confirmed identification
The CCTV image prompted the precautionary response, but the animal’s identity remained unsettled. In an earlier account of the search, ranger Sanjay Kumar had not confirmed a leopard and had raised the possibility of a wild cat instead.
The absence of pugmarks in the reported search also does not establish where an animal went. It records what the team had not found at that point. No capture, attack or confirmed movement route was reported in the account.
The school had already been closed for the air show and was running online classes when the footage came to attention, according to the earlier account. That existing arrangement should be distinguished from the later precautions prompted by the suspected animal sighting.
School access depends on the official assessment
School management had increased precautions and said reopening would be considered after guidance from the Forest Department. This was a condition in the reported arrangement, not a confirmed reopening date.
Parents should use the school’s own current communication for attendance and campus-access instructions. Friday’s search update did not specify a reopening date, and the presence of a forest team should not be taken as an announcement that normal access has resumed.
Members of the public should allow the search team to work and pass any relevant observation through the school or responsible authorities. The available update does not invite residents to enter the grounds, join the search or attempt to approach an animal.
Friday’s position remained one of investigation and precaution: a suspected sighting, a continuing search and no leopard located. A verified identification, a capture or a formal clearance for normal campus access would each be a separate development. Until such an update is issued, the footage should not be presented as proof that a leopard has been confirmed on the school premises.
