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Leopard on loose dodges rescue teams, injures two villagers
A leopard that has killed four people in the past week in Nageena, Bijnor, has evaded capture from rescue teams. The district forest officials have formed eight teams, but since the leopard has not been declared a man-eater, it cannot be hunted. Teams have only the options of tranquilising it or pushing it towards cages placed in the area. Initial examination of wounds on victims shows that gashes were not deep. Wildlife experts suggest deploying experts to track the animal instead of relying on untrained people.
The leopard which has killed four persons in past one week in Nageena area of district Bijnor, is turning out to be a big challenge for the rescue teams as it dodged them from a close distance here on Thursday night.
The leopard also injured two more villagers in Rehad area here on Thursday .
The district forest officials have formed eight teams to catch the animal and a member of one of the teams, on condition of anonymity, claimed that they were close to catching the animal on Thursday night, but it dodged them and disappeared in the dark. “We spotted the animal in searchlight in an open area, but it disappeared in the dark before the team could act to tranquilize it,” he said.
Since the leopard has not been declared a man eater, it cannot be hunted, and the teams have the only option either to tranquilize it or push it towards the cages which have been placed at different locations in the area.
Meanwhile, initial examination of wounds inflicted by the animal on the victims shows that gashes were not deep. “It might be possible that his canine tooth was broken,” said a team member who also highlighted that the animal only killed but did not eat the flesh.
According to wildlife expert and former head of the wildlife department in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Dr Afifullah Khan, cat families generally hide their kills and eat them later. He said that shallow wounds on victims could be caused either due to broken canine or the animal avoided putting extra effort on its kills after they died.
He suggested that wildlife experts should be deployed in the area to catch the animal instead of banking on untrained people. He further said that it was always a good decision to seek help from villagers along with beat experts of the forest department in tracking the animal.
