Pune: As citizens welcomed 2021 New Year by partying indoors or their farmhouses, an Indian Bison, known as Gaur, was spotted at Maan village in Hinjawadi at around 5.30am on Friday (January 1, 2021) morning.
Local villages fear the animal would again stray in the village and IT park area and injure unsuspecting citizens. This is the third instance of this wild animal being sighted in the urban localities of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad cities in the last one month.
The Gaur was spotted near Rakshe vasti. A local citizen Jaywant Rakshe spotted the wild animal which is suspected to have come from the Mula river side. Jaywant tried to click a photo of the animal, however it charged towards him. Jaywant got scared and ran towards his house.
Later the Gaur went towards the river side and disappeared in the nearby farms. Local villagers are worried that the wild animal would attack them and have demanded to rescue the animal to its natural habitat.
The Gaur was recently spotted at the HEMRL compound wall near Pashan lake in Bavdhan area on December 22. The Gaur was successfully kept at a distance from the main road and nearby residential areas.
The forest officials had put up iron nets, tin sheets and bamboos along with pieces of red cloth to divert the attention of the Gaur and lead it to the nearby forest area. After a few hours, the Gaur returned to its natural habitat.
Before that, another Gaur was sighted on December 9 at the Mahatma Society. Citizens had crowded at the Mahatma Society area due to which the Gaur had panicked.
The animal then ran about six to seven kilometres towards Paud road before it could be captured. However, the long chase had exhausted the animal due to which it succumbed to exhaustion after it.