A female leopard, aged around 2 years, was caught in a trap cage at the Jalan tea estate near the Assam Medical College here on Wednesday. On Tuesday night, the forest department had laid the trap to catch the leopard which had been causing havoc in the tea garden and nearby areas by preying on people’s livestock. A goat was tethered inside the camouflaged cage as a live bait to entice the big cat and in the early morning hours the leopard fell for the decoy and it was trapped inside the iron cage. The leopard was later released in the Joypur reserve forest after a veterinary check up. No injury was found on the body of the leopard. A forest official said that this was the second instance of a leopard being captured from the area in last 2 months. On June 19, another leopard was caught in the same manner from the tea estate. 


“Leopards use to take shelter inside the tea gardens because of their close proximity to the forests. The sprawling tea estates situated near the forests serves as suitable habitats for the wild cats. They come out from the fringe areas of the forest, which is their natural habitats and strays into the tea gardens in search of food. Tea garden workers are often caught off guards, as they are attacked by the wild cats, when they venture out to pick tea leaves,” a forest official said.


In the past several leopards have been killed in man-leopard conflict in the area. In order to prevent killing of leopards which are protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the forest department have been regularly conducting awareness programmes among the public.

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