Killer leopard finally trapped

The Forest Department heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday night when the leopard that had attacked four persons,killing a woman near Umred town 45 km from here landed in a cage trap.

The animal that has been dodging the trap and the trackers for about ten days and had been attacking people,entered the cage after taking sitting near it for over an hour. It then entered the cage. “It happened at around 11 pm yesterday. We had fixed two cages along the Chikna-Tarna road where the leopard was loitering. First time it came close to the cages,but didn not enter and went away. After some time,the leopard returned and again and sat near the cage that had a goat inside as bait. He waited for over an hour before deciding to make a dash for it and was trapped,” said P K Mahajan,Divisional Forest Officer.

Mahajan had on Wednesday requested the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) S W H Naqvi to allow shooting of the animal since it was refusing to enter the trap cage. “Thankfully,we didn’t have to use the resort,” Mahajan said.