Western Uttar Pradesh has become a prowling ground for big cats leading to increasing incidents of man-animal conflicts in the region. While a tigress is at large even after killing 10 people in western UP, the crisis worsened after two leopards ran amok in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar. Curfew-like situation prevails in these areas with people compelled to stay indoors and schools closed as a precautionary measure.
According to forest officials, while a leopard wandered through an Army hospital and a crowded market in Meerut city on Sunday, yet another leopard sent a scare through the Charthawal area of Muzaffarnagar on Monday.
The leopard was first seen in a timber godown located in the heart of Meerut on Sunday. Henceforth, it escaped from there and entered Cantonment Board Hospital, injuring several people on the way. Police and forest department struggled for several hours but failed to capture the animal. Even Army’s quick response team was pressed into service but to no avail. A police officer and a journalist were injured by the furious big cat.
Although the police managed to lock it up in the general ward of the hospital, the leopard mysteriously escaped in the wee hours of Monday. To make situations worse, a tiger was also seen stalking the villages in Bhira police station area in the vicinity of Dudhwa National Park in lakhimpur Kheri district. Over a dozen schools situated near the forest had been shut.
The situation is equally alarming in western part of the State, where villages spread over about 130 km in the districts of Sambhal, Moradabad, Amroha and Bijnore have been living in constant fear of a man-eating tigress that has believed to stray out of the neighbouring Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand.
According to reports, the big cat continues to elude the team of six professional shooters on its trail for nearly a month. However, the incident of leopard straying in Meerut has perplexed big cat experts. “I have never heard of a leopard surfacing in a heavily populated urban area. Besides, there is no jungle outside city limits,” said Ram lakhan Singh, tiger expert and founder director of Dudhwa National Park and tiger reserve. Vidya Athreya, Wildlife biologist from Centre For Wildlife Study and Asian Nature Conservation Foundation, said dogs are major attraction for leopards.