Bhaderwah, Jul 04: Villagers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bhaderwah heaved a sigh of relief after Wild life department and Territorial Forest wing finally Caged the leopard alive who has created fear psychosis in the area by attacking humans and domestic animals.
Range Officer wild life range Kishtwar Shafer Iqbal said, “a fully grown male leopard was safely confined to a cage in the Bhalra Forest area after it injured school going teenage boy of the village beside attacking other villagers and killing several livestock that sparked panic in the residential neighborhood.”
“The aggressive leopard had caused panic in Bhalra area which is located in dense forest and after villagers raised an alarm, we immidiately set up a trap here after scrutinizing the area with the help of forest official. The animal was caged this morning without using and traquilzers,” Shafer Iqbal added.
“The animal is being safely taken to trauma Centre Kishtwar and after medical examination the leopard will be free in it’s natural habitat,” Officer said.
Villagers, especially students and those who have to accompany their domestic animals in the forest area for raring in constant fear finally heaved a sigh of relief after the leopard who has killed dozens of animals including sheep, goats and dogs was captured today.
“Since last one week, we could not go to college due to the fear of leopard as the animal attacked a student from our village while he was going to school as we have to trek through dense forest to reach to the motorable road,” Said Kajal (20), a college student from Bhalra village.
“Now we can resume our classes as the wild animal has been captured and for the prompt action, we are thankful to wild life and Forest department,” Kajal added.
Meanwhile officers of forest department appealed to villagers not to enter in the natural habitat of wild animals unnecessarily to avoid man animal conflict.
“Due to increasing encroachment by the humans into the territory of wild animals, we have constantly squeezed their natural habitat that has resulted in dearth of food for them and in recent times this has been observed that the wild animals especially leopards and bear barge into the inhabited areas in search of food,” Said Sameer Rishu, Range Officer Neeru Range of Bhaderwah Forest Division.
“If anyone sights the wild animal, instead of chasing them or taking videos, they should immidiately inform either forest officials or wild life department. It has been observed by the experts and is a proved fact that these animals only ascend down to the villages in compulsion and not by choice, so we should not adopt aggressive attitude towards them as they are an integral part of our ecosystem,”Sameer Rishu added.
