Despite a leopard of Ekeshwar block in Pauri district being declared a man-eater, the hunter and the forest department team are still unable to trace the leopard which had killed a woman in the Panchur village on Sunday.
The locals are living in fear of the leopard and demanded that it be killed. They had protested at Vikas Bhawan on Monday during the visit of Cabinet minister and district in-charge minister Amrita Rawat.
Garhwal Divisional Forest Officer Raj Mani Pandey said that five persons were killed by leopards in the Ekeshwar block this year and five big cats were declared man-eater by the chief wildlife warden but not a single was captured.
Three leopards were trapped in a cage but none of them turned out to be a man-eater so they were sent to Almora. Pandey said that from May 2012 till now nine persons were killed by leopards here.
The department licensed hunter J Hukel and forest team deployed were in the area from Monday, but no success has been achieved yet.
He said that in Panchur village the leopard lifted 35 year old lakshmi when she came out of the house at night. Her half eaten body was discovered at a short distance from her home. The DFO informed that the problem big cats are active in Barsu, Mankot, Panchur and few other places.