Leopard caged in Junagadh village

09-03-2010
Leopard caged in Junagadh village
Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/Leopard-caged-in-Junagadh-village-/articleshow/5660484.cms

A male leopard was caught by Junagadh range forest officials from a farm in Mandor village of Veraval taluka of Junagadh district on Tuesday morning. Foresters said that a medical probe is on to ascertain whether this was the same animal that had killed two women of Ishwaryia village of the same taluka last month.

Sources in the department said, on Monday evening a resident of Mandor village, Meraman Dodia, called up forest officials after workers spotted a leopard in his sugarcane field. "We put up cages in areas surrounding the spot in the evening. By 5 am on Tuesday, a leopard was caught in one of the cages. We have sent this leopard to Junagadh's Sakkarbaug zoo,'' said a forest official. The seven-year-old male leopard is eight feet long and about two-and-a-half-feet high.

Two women labourers from Madhya Pradesh were mauled to death on February 10 by a leopard on the outskirts of Ishwariya, which is located close to Mandir and Sawa villages. After the incident, villagers of the region have remained scared as the incident had been the first of its kind of killing of adults. In fact, the forest department did nab a female leopard immediately after the incident but foresters discovered that the original animal was still at large. Meanwhile, attacks on humans continued with another woman and a girl being attacked.

"We are trying to ascertain if the leopard caught on Tuesday is the one that killed the two women. Officials will match footprints found at the time of the earlier incident with those of the latest caged leopard,'' said official.