Assam: Injured leopard rescued from Jorhat tea garden

Tinsukia: A sub-adult injured leopard was tranquilised and resced in Upper Assam’s Jorhat district on Thursday night.

Speaking with EastMojo, divisional forest officer of Jorhat Davinder Suman said, “Based on reports of a leopard straying around Atapam village under Titabar circle, a team from the Centre for Wildlife Rescue and Conservation, Panbari, under Kaziranga National Park, was deputed.”

“The team with the help of forest officials under Jorhat DFO and local people, who gathered in large numbers, rescued the male leopard after tranquilising it,” Suman said, adding, “The leopard has been taken to the Panbari wildlife rescue centre near KNP for medical examination and will be released at a suitable wildlife forest soon.”

The development comes after four leopards were caged in upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district in the month of December last year. In one of the incidents, the leopard entered a residence at Paltan Bazar in the heart of Dibrugarh town and injured one person.

In another incident, four persons — two with serious injuries — were injured after a full-grown leopard attacked them at Sasoni in Naharkatia in Dibrugarh district.

Suman said that due to habitat destruction owing to developmental needs, forest cover is declining and human wildlife negative interactions are on the rise. “All stakeholders working with shared objective of peaceful coexistence of human and wildlife can go a long way in saving these wildlife forms for posterity,” Suman added.