Leopard Blamed For Killing Of Two Children In Four Days In UP Is Finally Captured Alive

A leopard that is believed to have killed two children in the Katarniaghat wildlife division in Uttar Pradesh's

Bahraich recently has been caught by a forest department team.

According to the Forest Department, the 2.5-year-old female was caught late on Monday night.

Representational Image/Shutterstock

Divisional Forest Officer Akashdeep Badhawan said cages were installed after the leopard killed the two children.

"Our team caught the leopard around 1 am last night," he said.

A medical examination by veterinarians found the animal fit to be released into natural habitat. It will now be released in the Trans Gerua forest.

The leopard had killed two children in Khale Badhaiya and Kalandarpur in the Katarniaghat Wildlife Division on Friday and Sunday respectively.

What happened?

In the first incident, the victim of the big cat was a seven-year-old child and on Sunday it struck again.

The victim, Anshika, was dragged away by the leopard while she was playing with her uncle outside her house on Sunday night.

Though her severed head was found by a search party in the forest, the rest of the body was not.

AFP

Following the two kills in quick successions, forest department had asked villagers not to come out of their houses in the night and keep children inside homes.

Not the first such incident

In the past two months, over half a dozen leopard attacks have been reported in this area and two children have died in such incidents.

Last month a new report had said that n estimated 12,852 leopards were counted in the tiger range landscape in 2018, a significant increase from 2014 when the figure stood at 7,910 in forested habitats of 18 tiger-bearing states of the country.

A maximum of these leopards are found in Madhya Pradesh (3,421) followed by Karnataka (1,783), and Maharashtra (1,690), according to the 'Status of Leopards, Co-Predators and Megha-herbivores in India 2018' report released by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.

BCCL

The Shivalik Hills and Gangetic plains have 1,253 (1,158-1348) leopards (Bihar 98, Uttarakhand 839, and Uttar Pradesh 316), central India and Eastern Ghats have 8,071 (7,654-8,488) (Andhra Pradesh 492, Telangana 334, Chhattisgarh 853, Jharkhand 46, Madhya Pradesh 3,421, Maharashtra 1,690, Odisha 760, and Rajasthan 476), the Western Ghats have 3,387 (Goa 86, Karnataka 1,783, Kerala 650 and Tamil Nadu 868).

The northeastern hills and Brahmaputra flood plains have a total of 141 (Arunachal Pradesh 11, Assam 47 and West Bengal 83), the report said.

Releasing the report, the Minister said that it is a testimony to the fact that conservation of tigers leads to the conservation of entire ecosystem.

After tigers and lions, leopards occupy the next level in the trophic pyramid along with dhole.