KATHMANDU, Nepal-All of sudden, a leopard suddenly spotted at the district headquarter Gulariya in Bardiya, Tuesday morning. People felt panic while finding the rare wild cat which is even difficult to find at the nearby forests and adjoining areas of Bardiya National Park.
Passerby heading towards their destination started running while finding the leopard in front of them in the daylight, however some people took advantage of the terror scene capturing the images and video into their mobile as it was completely novel for the urban people.
In the meantime, the big cat attacked a 12 year old student Sushil Chand who was heading towards school and another local 20 year old Krishna Gupta, injuring seriously. Both the injured are sustaining treatment at district hospital Bardiya.
The leopard had instantly entered into the building of the office of Dalit Women Empowerment Federation and the staffs felt more horror. However, they succeeded to trap the beast inside the room and informed immediately to the district police office.
‘I had not seen such a big leopard previously’, a local Ram Kumar Chudhary told local media. According to Chaudhary the beast in its wide red eyes and sharp paws was snoozing at the middle of street.
A special technical team from Bardiya National Park in Thakurduar had taken the leopard under control after the dart following six hours of trap inside the office.
The leopard was freed inside the Park at the same night, according to assistant conservation officer Ramesh Thapa.
Local have guessed that it might have entered into the district headquarter from nearby local community forest or Krishna Shar Conservation Area.
In the recent days, locals living adjoining the National Park and Conservation Areas are constantly living under constant fear since the wild beasts from the parks have been preying their livestock.
Only on Monday afternoon, a roaring tiger from Bardiya National parks attacked two people who had gone to nearby forest to collect the fords.
Villagers adjoining the parks have frequently been complaining that they are facing hard times due to the untoward activities of the wild beast especially leopard which has attacked a dozen cattle within two weeks.
The plight of the people living near the park and wildlife reserve area is common across the country. Just a few months ago, an elephant ‘Dhurbe’ from Chitwan National Park had created havoc across Chitwan district.
Dhurbe have killed nine people so far between the period of nine months and government have formed a technical committee to hunt this wild tusker but failed in its endeavor.
Park officials had trimmed the tusker of Dhurbe a year ago in a bid to lessen its uproar activities around the park but the tuskers have
gone beyond control and the government has announced the prize for the people who inform its whereabouts.
Locals had called on district bandh (shut down) continuously for three days protesting against the Dhurbe’s activities and the government failures to rein the tusker. ‘Dhurbe might have roaming inside the park,’ an official at the Chitwan National Park (CNP) guessed.
Human settlements adjoining the park are not only under the constant fear of animals’ attack, but sometimes, wild best mainly leopard is posing threat to Capital Kathmandu and other cities of the country.
Locals had mercilessly thrashed a leopard with stick and stone near a river in Lokanthanli in Bhaktapur, hardly 5 hundred meters far from country’s only one international airport, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), two months ago. Later the officials at the District Forest Officer (DFO) had taken control the beast.
An official at the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation Sudeep Regmi stressed the need to control wild beast by setting up check posts near the parks. However, all the animals entering the cities are not belonging to certain park and reserve areas.
‘Wild beasts are beyond control in the recent months,’ Regmi told to Nepal Mountain Focus, ‘Government should provide special instructions to locals about the significance of rare animals and must prohibit them from thrashing mercilessly even if they entered into human settlement.’
According to Regmi dozens of people have been killed due to animal attack but their records have not been kept at the Ministry.
According animal expert Rabi Maharjhan, wild animals are gradually eroding human settlement searching for prey. ‘It is the echo system of nature, even a snow leopard is descending from the peak seeking prey due to climate change,’ Shrestha further told.
