RAIPUR: The elusive leopard that killed three villagers was captured by the forest officials in north Chhattisgarh on Wednesday morning after it walked into a cage set up at Manendragarh, about 350 km from Raipur.
The ‘man-eater’ leopard often managed to slip from the forest department and the district administration for 36 days during which it killed three persons and seriously injured two others.
The department struggled to capture the leopard by setting up a cage trap and placing goats, roosters, and dogs as bait besides installing cameras and also using drones to locate it but nothing seemed to have worked. On Tuesday two elephants were pressed into action with the experts to follow the leopard on the basis of pugmarks traced in the region.
The trapped leopard is likely to be shifted to Kanan Pendari Zoological park in the Bilaspur district.
“The terrified villagers stopped venturing out of their homes. The attendance in the schools of the area was negligible”, said Chandrakant Pargir, a local journalist.
Among the villagers who were killed by the leopard included two women and a man.
“The victim’s family were given an immediate relief of Rs 25,000. The remaining amount of Rs 5.75 lakh will be disbursed to each of them after the completion of formalities", a senior forest official said.