Five injured in leopard attack near KWS
It was the second attack by the cat within three days in the sanctuary area. Prior to this, a leopard had attacked and injured three persons, including a woman, in Matehi Karikot village on Tuesday.
Bahraich: Five people, including a woman, were injured in a leopard’s attack in Chahalwa village under Sujauli police station area of the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS) on Thursday.
It was the second attack by the cat within three days in the sanctuary area. Prior to this, a leopard had attacked and injured three persons, including a woman, in Matehi Karikot village on Tuesday.
On Thursday morning, a leopard attacked one Reeta Devi (35), a resident of Chahlawa village, when she had gone to attend the nature’s call. Listening to her screams, villagers rushed for help. The furious leopard attacked and injured Sanjay, Lal Bahadur, Sahdev and Santosh in an attempt to escape from the scene.
Soon a large number of villagers gathered at the spot. Finding no way to escape, the leopard entered the house of one Laxman.
A forest team led by divisional forest officer (DFO), KWS, Akash Deep Badhwan, range officer (RO) Katarniaghat Ram Kumar, forester Mayank Pandey, forest guard Abdul Salam reached the spot and rushed the injured to the hospital.
Members of the Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Tiger Mitra were also called to handle the situation. Besides, two pet elephants of the sanctuary named Jampakali and Jay Mala were also pressed into service to deal with any untoward situation.
Badhawan said tranquilliser expert from Dudhwa National Park (DNP) Dr Daya Shankar and Dr Deepak Verma from Katarniaghat were called to tranquillise the leopard. About sixty members’ joint team of the forest, police, WWF, STPF, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) got involved in the operation to catch the leopard.
The team covered the whole house with a net so the leopard could not escape. After about five hours of concerted efforts, the leopard could be tranquilised and was taken to Katarniaghat range campus.
Badhawan said a health check-up of the leopard was done by a joint team of veterinary experts. The team found the animal fit to be released in the forest, Badhawan added. The DFO further said the captured leopard was a female and aged about 6 years.
He said the animal would be released in the Trans-Geruwa area of the Katarniaghat range as per the permission of chief wildlife warden of Uttar Pradesh. The DFO also announced ₹5,000 each to the injured from Dudhwa Tiger Conservation Foundation.
