M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Dec 21: The two recent attacks on minor children by a leopard in the Garhwa district have created terror in the area. Pieces of evidence like the length and size of the pug marks point towards it being an adult male leopard which is taking prowls in the jungles and is after human lives.
IFS Dileep Kumar Yadav, the Conservator of forest (CF) of Garhwa, said the pug marks collected are found to be square and their length also buttresses the killing leopard to be a male. It is a loner, according to him.
After the recent incidents, one automatic cage has been brought to Garhwa from the Palamu Tiger Reserve which is a lone piece in entire Jharkhand.
Kumar Ashish, the deputy director of North division of the PTR said, “We got to have this automatic cage only when we found it in the Pilibhit tiger reserve. We have given the cage and camera traps to the Garhwa forest officials to contain the leopard which has unleashed terror in the area.”
Meanwhile, the Garhwa forest officials are carrying out massive public information drive in regard to the menace of the leopard.
“We have set up 6 teams to keep on any input among the common people in regard to the leopard. We have been asking people to move in flock and keep eyes and ears open to the slightest of the movement in the plain or even in the small bushes and shrubs as this leopard may be silently perching on a tree in the backyard of your neighbour or at the back of your house only to sprint and injure,” the CF said.
“As Christmas is around, the faithful will be having evening to post-midnight celebrations with homecoming at odd hours and hence they should exercise all caution for their movement, be it going to the church at night or returning, ” he added.
He went on to say, “We have urged the cattle growers not to leave their cattle in the jungles as their absence in the jungle may drive this leopard to walk in into our automatic cage where is a goat as a lure to it.”
Meanwhile, Kumar Ashish said, “A starving leopard, when fails to find cattle around, will be in a hot pursuit of prey and then it heightens the risks of its attack on human beings as well besides one can hope it enters the automatic cage with bait in it if the cage is set up in the movement area of the leopard.”
Around two months ago, a male leopard had sneaked in to the soft release centre of the Sambhars under the Bareysanr range of the PTR where it had injured two trackers and preyed a Kotra. Later, the team of the PTR officials led by the field director and chief conservator Kumar Ashutosh had succeeded in forcing this intruder leopard to flush out of the sambhars’ enclosure.
