Army, police, forest depart personnel search for man-eating leopard in Udaipur's forests

Jaipur, Oct 2 (PTI) Several teams involving the Army, police and forest department personnel fanned out in the forests of Udaipur district to look for a man-eating leopard that killed seven people recently, officials said.

Alarmed over the rising number of deaths, forest authorities issued an order on Tuesday to shoot down the leopard. The order came after a 55-year-old woman, Kamla Kanwar, was mauled to death on Tuesday morning outside her house in Suawaton ka Gudha when she was feeding fodder to livestock.

The permission was granted under conditions that an attempt should be made to tranquilise or trap the leopard. However, in case the animal cannot be tranquilised or trapped, its correct identification should be ensure before killing the animal.

Several teams, with shooters, are searching for the leopard with the help of the locals and cages have been set up in various locations.

Deputy Conservator of Forest (Udaipur North) Ajay Chittora, said all teams are making coordinated efforts to locate the leopard.

Following the order to shoot the leopard issued by Principal Chief Wildlife Warden (PCCF) and Chief Wildlife Warden (CWWF) Pavan Kumar Upadhyay, the teams of the forest department along with the police and army surrounded the area where the leopard was moving around.

A police official said the search operation is continuing in Gogunda and nearby areas, adding the locals have been asked to stay inside and remain alert.

Concerned over the leopard attack and growing resentment among the locals, the forest authorities placed cages, installed camera traps and sought help from the Indian Army to track the leopard last month. As a result, three leopards were captured from different places.

In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich, people have been grappling with wolf terror with incidents of attack on humans seeing a spike from July 17 during the rainy season. Till September 2, eight people, including seven children, have died in these attacks while about 36, including women, children and elderly, have been injured. PTI SDA AS NSD NSD