Lucknow: Two elephants, used in combing operations, were shifted from Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) to Bijnor district’s Telipura village by forest department officials on Saturday to shoot a leopard that recently killed a 20-year-old man and has now been declared a “man-eater”. Two teams comprising at least 20 forest officers were also formed to capture the feline.
As many as 11 people have been killed in leopard attacks in the past three months in the belt. UP principal chief conservator of forests Sudhir Kumar Sharma declared the leopard a man-eater on Friday after the feline killed farmer Sandeep Kumar on Thursday, dragged the body for 50 m and ate portions of it.
Forest department shooters will carry out the hunt on Sunday, and no professional shooters will be allowed to participate. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) recently updated the old policy and has now disallowed the practice to hire “outside agencies”.
Bijnor DFO AK Singh said, “We have brought two trained elephants to track the wanted leopard. Besides, two teams of experts have been deployed to tranquilise or shoot the big cat. Our priority is to catch it. If things go south, we may have to shoot it.”
Singh added, “We launched a combing operation and we are operating drones in the area to locate the leopard. Several cages and camera traps have been set up in the village.”
According to officials, the leopard is changing its position after every attack. The forest department has been unable to trap the feline despite consistent efforts.
