A wild leopard has been trapped in a cage set up by foresters in a tea garden in the western Dooars, but the animal suffered injuries when onlookers poked it with sticks and rods.
In another incident, the carcass of an adult female leopard was spotted in the Baradighi tea garden under Matialli block of Jalpaiguri district on Wednesday.
The leopard found trapped in the Moraghat tea garden under Dhupguri block on Wednesday morning is an adult male leopard.
“For the past three weeks, a leopard had been straying into the garden. We had informed foresters that a leopard was on the prowl and they laid a trap and kept a goat as bait,” said Tulshi Mahali, a garden worker.
Hundreds of people gathered near the cage. While most were busy clicking photos and selfies and shooting videos, some others used sticks and rods to poke the big cat that was consistently growling in the cage.
“It is unfortunate that a section of residents hit the animal with sticks and rods. It has suffered injuries. Foresters should have rushed to the spot earlier,” said Shyamaprasad Pandey, a wildlife conservationist in the Dooars.
After a couple of hours, a forest team arrived and took away the animal to the rescue centre in Lataguri (on the fringes of Gorumara National Park) for treatment.
The foresters said the leopard whose carcass had been found in the Baradighi garden might have died because of some infection. “The exact cause of the death can, however, be confirmed only after a post-mortem,” said Rajkumar Layak, a forest ranger officer.
The wildlife squad posted at Khunia in Gorumara reached the spot.
Pangolin
The dead pangolin that was seized by the special task force of forest department at Kalijhora on Tuesday had been bludgeoned to death, said vets in Jalpaiguri on Wednesday.
The carcass was brought to the ARD hospital in Jalpaiguri for a post-mortem. It was hit on the head with some blunt weapon, the vets said.
All the five Sikkim residents, who were arrested with the pangolin, were produced in the chief judicial magistrate’s court. The court remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.
“We are waiting for the post-mortem report. Once we get it, we will file the chargesheet against the accused in the court,” said Sanjay Dutta, the range officer of the task force.