Bihar: 11 people, including 3 forest officials, injured in Rohtas leopard attack

After three hours of intense efforts, the forest team successfully trapped the leopard in a net and later caged the animal by evening.

A leopard that strayed from the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary into the plains attacked and injured 11 people, including three forest department personnel, in Kochas town of Rohtas district on Wednesday. Forest officials later managed to rescue and cage the animal in the evening.

Representational image. (AFP File)

The incident occurred when farmers were harvesting paddy near the Kochas Power House. The leopard emerged from the embankments of the Dharmawati river and first attacked farmer Pradeep Kumar. It then charged at and injured two other farmers, Manish Ojha and Ram Pravesh Singh, prompting them to raise an alarm, officials said.

Hundreds of farmers working in nearby fields and people from the Kochas market rushed to the place, following which the leopard entered the power house premises and later in ward number 3 of the town after crossing National Highway 319.

Rohtas divisional forest officer (DFO) Stalin Fidal Kumar K rushed to the place with a rescue team. A trap was laid to capture the animal that was hiding in an under-construction house.

It also attacked and injured others, identified as Nazir Husain, Md Ekram, Raj Kumar and Ajay Kumar from the crowd that had surrounded the animal and were raising an alarm. Another local, Santosh Prasad, was severely injured as the leopard clawed at him in approximately 40 places on the head, face, neck and other parts of the body.

After three hours of intense efforts, the forest team successfully trapped the leopard in a net. During the rescue operation, the animal injured forest guard Santosh Sah and rescuers Rajiv Kumar and Vivek Kumar.

The DFO said that all injured persons, including the forest team members, were safe after treatment at the local community health centre.

He said that despite repeated requests by the rescue team to stay away from the animal and refrain from making noise, many people created a lot of chaos. This frightened the leopard, making the animal restless and aggressive.

The leopard is being shifted to the department’s Rajgir centre for treatment and rehabilitation, the DFO added.