Two leopards caught from Veraval, Rajula

30-04-2010
Two leopards caught from Veraval, Rajula
Times of India
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Forest department caged two leopards from Veraval in Junagadh and Rajula in Amreli in past 48 hours. One of the big cats died of heat. The big cat that died was a female caught in Savani village near Veraval on Wednesday morning. "The leopard used to prey upon village cattle and had been thwarting our attempts of caging her. As a last-ditch effort, we had set up a cage with a live goat as bait inside it in an orchard. Attracted by constant bleating of the goat, the leopard got inside the cage at 5am and was trapped," said Jokhia, in-charge range forest officer of Veraval.

However, the leopard appeared seriously ill and after spending a few hours in the cage it died. Preliminary investigation of the forest department attributed heat wave as the cause of the death. The big cat's body was sent to veterinary hospital in Sasan Gir for postmortem to ascertain the exact cause of death.

The deceased leopard appeared about three years old, five feet long and two feet high. Meanwhile in Rajula, a male leopard was found caged on Tuesday morning. The leopard had killed four goats and an equal number of dogs on the outskirts of Rajula and Jhampadar village in the past 10 days.