Despite a male eight-year-old leopard caged in village Mangsu of Patti Chauras in Tehri district on Monday, the fear is yet to die down. The forest department installed the cage after the alarmed villagers had demanded the same.
This is the second incident in sixteen days that the leopard has been caged. A leopardess was caught in village Sama Dang on 21March night.
Both the beasts have been caged within the Maninath forest range. However, the villagers’ fear is yet to be allayed with a big cat supposedly stalking about the village in search of prey.
The forest department has sent the captured leopard to the Rajajee National Park, whence the captured beast will be freed in the forest.
The Gram Pradhan Mangsu village Raja Ram and other villagers said that two leopards on the prowl and straying in the village had kept the villagers under the clutches of fear for the past two months. They were relieved after both the big cats were caged. But the fear revived after they heard another one howling in the night of Sunday. It repeated in the morning of Monday.
Informed that the leopard had been caged, a forest team came and took the leopard to the Dangchora range office, from where the leopard was sent to the Rajajee National Park.