Finally, the leopard, believed to be a man-eater, which unleashed scare among the people living near the Raiwala and Motichur range of the Rajaji Park and Tiger Reserve, was caged along with another one by a forest department team based in Danda beat of Motichur range of Rajaji Tiger Reserve on Friday morning. The foresters said that they are now examining them to conclude whether any of them or both are man eaters or not.
If found so they would be sent to Chidiyapur Rescue Centre and if not the big cat duo would be released in the core areas of Rajaji Tiger Reserve, they said.
Notably, a leopard had mauled to death a villager a week ago, leaving others scared. The body had been found in Motichor range.
Over the past two years, at least six persons died in leopard attacks and many were critically mauled. Several incidents of leopards straying into residential colonies of Raiwala and Haripur Kalan and killing stray dogs and domesticated animals have been reported. Things happening at regular intervals, the forest department had put two cages and camera traps to capture the big cat on the gory rampage. Foresters said that the male leopard was tranquilised when found waiting for its prey animal on the outskirts of a village in Raiwala and later caged while the female one had got trapped in a cage laid out near Satyanarayan temple on Thursday night.
The park director Sanatan Sonekar said that a team and 20 camera traps had been put into place to figure out the movement of the leopard. “We are now examining whether they are man eaters or not,” he added.