M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Dec 22: The leopard, which is now a synonym for terror as it has so far killed two human beings and two cattle in the Garhwa district, is yet to be officially declared as a ‘man-eater’.
This is because once declared a man-eater, the only option left with the foresters will be ‘shoot at sight’.
Dileep Kumar Yadav, the conservator of forest, Garhwa, said: “Chief wildlife warden Shashikar Samanta is keeping a close tab on the development in the context of the leopard, its behaviour, its movement and its prey.”
He said the leopard has begun to prey on cattle. “We stand a chance to get him caged in the automatic cage. The leopard has eaten 4 kgs of the flesh of the buffalo at Madgari,” he added.
As leopards come under Schedule 1 animal, a whole range of SoP has to be followed as laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority to declare this particular leopard as a man-eater under section 11 (1) (a) of the Wildlife Protection Act.
ALSO READ: Garhwa: ‘Man-eater’ leopard likely a male, foresters ask villagers to be alert
“We would get the permission to tranquillize the leopard from the chief wildlife warden as there is a long-drawn procedure since tranquillizing has to be done by a very expert hand,” the CF said.
Incidentally, Palamu Tiger Reserve has at present two TGuns (tranquillizing guns) as confirmed by the deputy director South division of the PTR, Mukesh Kumar.
“PTR has two Tguns and two gunners. One is Kunal Singh who was once a CoBRA jawan. He left this security force job and joined the PTR as a forest guard appointed by the state government. The other Tgunner is Sanjay Singh who is the driver,” Mukesh said.
