While leopard sightings have been reported from Tapkeshwar area, movements of the big cat appeared to have subsided considerably in the Forest Research Institute campus. Earlier in March, a girl was killed by a leopard in the FRI campus after which a pregnant leopardess had been shot by authorised hunters and a male leopard trapped and released in the jungle. Meanwhile, a cage and camera traps have been placed by the Forest department in the Raiwala area from where the body of a youth believed to have been killed and partially eaten by a leopard had been discovered a couple of days ago.
According to the Rajaji National Oark, Dehradun warden SP Sharma, a cage along with camera traps have been placed at the site in Raiwala range from the body of the youth was discovered. The site was in a wooded area and so the death of the youth could not be considered a result of a big cat entering human settlement. Though there had been no reports of leopard sightings in the residential area, the department is monitoring the ite where the youth was killed, he added.
Meanwhile, leopard sightings have dropped in the FRI campus. According to the institute’s Silviculture division head Kunal Satyarthi, in recent days there have been only unconfirmed leopard sightings on the campus. “There is some possibility of a lone leopard moving in the campus but this has to be ascertained. We are monitoring the area though there has been no recent leopard movement at the site where the incident had taken place,” he said. It should be noted here that the Forest Department has recently placed a cage in the Tapkeshwar area after some pets were reportedly killed by a big cat.