An aged leopard that had been hoodwinking the forest patrolling party for over a fortnight, was killed by a team of foresters from the Nainital forest division with the help of a shooter in Ranibag's Jantwal village area on Friday.
Though a leopard had already been caged by the Nainital forest division earlier after a few incidents of man-animal conflicts in the Nainital district in recent past, the villagers concerned were not satisfied with the caging of the aforesaid leopard. Rather the villagers
concerned were of the view that the leopard that had caused tensions for them for quite some time was bigger and aged. However, following the suggestions of the villagers concerned in this regard, the forest officials of the Nainital forest division redeployed their patrolling strategy hiring a shooter, Harish Chandra Dhami from Nainital's Dhari block.
As part of their patrolling plan, a team of foresters from the Nainital forest division accompanied by the shooter, Dhami, were patrolling in the same Jantwal village area on early Friday morning. Meanwhile, a leopard attacked a person who happened to be member of the same patrolling team on Friday morning. The injured person was later identified as Munna.
The health condition of Munna is now alright, said Parag Madhukar Dhakate, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Nainital Forest Division, while talking to The Pioneer. “It was a male leopard, aged about 10 years. We had been looking for this leopard for over a fortnight. Finally, shooter Dhami killed it on Friday morning,” Dhakate added. Post-mortem of the said leopard is now being done at the veterinary hospital of the Nainita zoo. In the meanwhile, the villagers of Jantwal village and adjacent areas have heaved a sigh of relief after hearing killing of this big cat.