One man-eater leopard killed in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar, search on for other

Hunter Joy Hukil killed one of the two man-eater leopards of Bageshwar district in Dayangad area on Wednesday evening, officials said.

Another team of hunters led by Lakhpat Singh is looking for the other man-eater. The district administration has also constituted three teams of revenue, police and forest officials to patrol areas where big cats have created terror and killed people, officials said.

Hukil said the man-eater leopard was a female, around eight years old, with its lower canine broken. “It was moving towards the human habitation in Dayangad when locals spotted it and informed us. It was perhaps coming for another attack. But we succeeded in shooting it down,” he said.

Earlier when chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat was in Bageshwar, some people and youth Congress activists staged a protest and burnt an effigy of the government in Dayangad of the district, alleging that it had failed to end the terror created by the maneater leopard in the area.

The leopard killed a seven-year-old child Karan on November 6. On the demand of the locals and representatives, the leopard was declared a man-eater on November 9 and Lakhpat Singh was asked to hunt it down if it can’t be tranquillised.

When reporters in Bageshwar asked the chief minister that despite an increase in leopard attacks, no major action had been taken, he said, “We have acted swiftly and sent a team of hunters. Some days ago a leopard was killed here. Now three teams are here. If the need arises, we can put more teams here.”

Leopard attacks have created terror in many areas of Bageshwar. On September 19, a leopard killed a four-year-old girl in Nadi Gaon area of Bageshwar. On September 4, a leopard killed a four-year-old girl in Garud area of Bageshwar. In June, angry villagers in Harinagari area of Bageshwar set a forest on fire after a leopard killed a seven-year-old boy.

Bageshwar district magistrate Ranjana Rajguru said apart from the forest department teams, the district administration has constituted three teams comprising revenue officials, local police and forest officials that will patrol the areas where leopards have created terror and killed people. “These teams will patrol these areas including Dayangad, Mehnar Ganga and Garud area between 5pm and 10.30pm,” she said

Hunter Lakhpat Singh, who came to Bageshwar on Tuesday, said, “My team is looking for the man-eater in Garud area where it had killed a girl on September 4. Earlier we couldn’t trace it as after one month the permission to kill the leopard lapsed. Now it has been granted again. I am searching for this Garud leopard,” he said.

Lakhpat said he would return to Chamoli on Thursday as his wife is contesting the elections for the chairman post at municipal council in his home district Chamoli. “I will have to be there for the election campaigning of my wife. It is a matter of five years. I will be back after casting my vote on November 18.”