Bhubaneswar, Oct 27: The Bhubaneswar forest officials have confirmed that the animal, which created a panic among people, is a wild cat and not a leopard.

The wild cat was sighted near the Biju Patnaik International Airport Saturday, keeping the airport authorities in high alert. 

The forest officials set up a cage with a bait (chicken) to capture the wild cat, which could pose a threat to aircraft if it enters the operational zone. 

In the past, the airport has reportedly seen wild cats, jackals, foxes, hyenas as well as leopards being caught from the operational zone. 

“The animal looks like a cat and it is not in the operational area. However, the forest personnel are on the job to catch it for safety purposes,” said an Airport official. 

The City forest division has kept a watch in the evening as well on the animal around the place it was sighted. 

The forest division had installed a couple of cages, traps as well as four trap cameras near the Airport dumping yard to capture the wild cat.

The trap cameras, which were installed by a five-member team of ranger and technical staff of the Bhubaneswar forest division were borrowed from Nandankanan.

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