Doon NGO finds cages to trap leopard unsafe

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The Forest Department has placed cages in the Salawala and Hathibarkala areas to trap a leopard which has caused much fear among local residents.

\Officials say that department personnel are patrolling the area twice a day. However, People for Animals, Uttarakhand, has complained that the cages placed by the department are very old in design and they do not ensure the safety of the live bait kept in the cage to lure the feline. The cage design is also such that the trapped feline injures itself while struggling in such a cage.

Regular sightings of a leopard have spread fear among the resident of Hathibarkala and Salawala areas in the State capital. The residents complain that the big cat has so far killed and preyed upon only on dogs and boars but there is a risk of the feline also attacking humans in case of a chance encounter or threatening situation.

The residents claim to see signs like pug marks of the feline on a daily basis in and around homes. A couple of days ago, the leopard had also entered the campus of a school in the night. Residents accompanied by the local Councillor also met the District Magistrate in-charge Sushil Kumar Sharma to seek effective steps for trapping the leopard and ensuring the safety of residents.

During the weekend, members of the PFA, Uttarakhand visited the area and said that the cage placed by the department is of an outdated design which doesn’t ensure the safety either of the dogs or any other animal kept as live bait. The bars dividing the leopard and the live bait are not strong enough to prevent the feline from killing the animal.

Volunteers of the organisation placed a wire mesh in the partition to protect the dogs that are placed as live bait by the local residents. They further alleged that the forest department is not maintaining communication with the residents who are unaware of whom to contact in case the leopard is trapped in a cage. However, the Dehradun divisional forest officer Meenakshi Joshi denied these allegations, averring that the live bait is not harmed in case a leopard is trapped in the cage. Department personnel are also patrolling the area daily and residents are fully aware about whom to contact in case a leopard gets trapped, she added.