A leopard strayed into the Dhalabari-Lalbari village in the Kranti block of Jalpaiguri district on Tuesday, attacked people and ran helter-skelter, before it was tranquillised by the forest department.
At least three people, including a policeman, were injured in the attack by the leopard. Villagers spotted the animal entering a jute field around 9am. From there, it ran to a tea plantation.
“We were suspecting a leopard had sneaked into our village, as 10 goats died in the past five days. I lost three goats,” said Soleman Ali, a villager.
When the villagers spotted the leopard on Tuesday, they gave it a chase. This left the animal panicked, and it ran here and there and attacked people.
Soon after, a team from the Kranti police station and personnel of the Baikunthapur forest division, Apalchand forest range and the wildlife squad in Khunia arrived. By then, the leopard had attacked two villagers and had taken shelter in the jute field.
The police and the foresters asked the local people to maintain a safe distance from the animal and started chasing it. The leopard then mauled a policeman on his right hand.
Eventually, the foresters managed to tranquilise the leopard and took it away.
The aggrieved villagers approached the foresters and demanded compensation for the loss of their goats. The department will look into their issue, said a forest officer.
The injured were taken to the primary health centre in Dakshin Hanskhali for treatment. Later, one of them was shifted to the super-speciality hospital, the sources said.