Leopard scare grips Lower Kaijaley in Darjeeling

Amitava Banerjee | MP | 18 July 2019 | Darjeeling: A leopard that had been tormenting the villagers at Lower Kaijaley in the Darjeeling Hills was finally trapped on Thursday.

Villagers of Kaijaley, 2 km from Bijanbari, are spending sleepless nights with leopards taking away their dogs, goats and pigs. "It has been more than one and a half months that two adult leopards have been sighted in the Lower Kaijaley area. There is a small forest near the Reling Khola (river) which the leopards inhabit. They come to the village in search of easy prey," stated KB Wattar, a resident.

According to Wattar, the leopards have killed most of the dogs of the village and nearby areas numbering hundred. Then they switched to goats. The two have killed more than 40 goats and pigs also.

Finally the villagers had given a deputation to the forest department. The Forest department had set up a leopard trap in which the leopard was trapped. It had killed the goat that had been used as bait.

"We had received information from the villagers and accordingly the range office had set up a leopard cage on Wednesday. On Thursday morning a female adult leopard was found trapped in the cage. We will take the trapped leopard to Bengal Safari in Siliguri," stated Vikas V, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO.)

The villagers have requested for more traps to trap the other leopard also. Bijanbari is located at a distance of 30 km from Darjeeling town