Dharampuri: Devotees at Monibaba Ashram and hundreds of villagers from Pipaldagadi village are living in fear as a leopard, which was spotted in CCTV footages installed by forest rescue team is still roaming freely.
Village Pipaldagadi situated under Dharampuri tehsil, is about seven-kilometer from tehsil headquarters. Villagers claimed that they heard roars on several occasions, further raising fears that it may attack again. Villagers said that the animal presence is disrupting their daily routine as earlier they used to roam about freely, till late night but now are really scared. They refuse to come out of their houses after sunset. Some villagers, armed with sticks, are now keeping vigil during the night.
“The entire village is in fear due to the recent attacks. The leopard has been spotted several times roaming freely in other villages,” village sarpanch Lokendra Singh Thakur said.
“It is really scary to know that a wild animal is roaming in our surroundings,” Thakur added.Village elders have also restrained children from moving out of home. Forest officials have formed different teams, including wildlife experts, and put many cages at different places to capture the leopard. An official said that the leopard had recently passed by one of the cages but managed to escape. His pug marks were found near the cage.
Earlier, on April 6 late night, two persons spotted a leopard near Monibaba Ashram. Pandit Vikas and Hariom, who were heading towards the ashram on Wednesday claimed that when they were nearing the ashram, they saw an animal sitting near the ashram gate.
To examine the spot, Vikas and Harisom flashed motorcycle headlight on the animal, but it sneaked away. Later, the leopard attacked one dog as well confirming its presence in the area. Meanwhile, forest ranger Dharmendra Rathore said forest officials were putting in their best efforts to trap the leopard.
“There is fear among the villagers but our teams are searching for the leopard. Forest teams are patrolling the area continuously. As the leopard is roaming around 20-kilometre wide area, we demarcated the area, but it’s not easy to trace the exact location of the animal in a dense forest area here,” Rathore said.
“In the next couple of days, we are going to increase the number of cages to trap the animal as soon as possible,” he added. Pipaldagadi village is not far from the Narmada basin. In the summer season, the man-animal conflict reaches its peak as wild cats often stray into human habitats in search of prey. Forest department team launched a massive search operation in the area, but in vain.
Experts claimed that due to lack of food and shrinking water resources in the forest area, leopards and other wild animals are forced to enter human habitats looking for food and water, especially during summer months.
