There is a possibility that the man-eater wolves of Bahraich, which are responsible for ten killings in Mahsi tehsil, are not the only predators that are on the hunt.
More than 60,000 people in approximately 85 villages spread across four tehsils in the Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh have been facing a significant threat as a result of a surge of man-eater leopards that has been on a killing spree for the past one and a half years. It is believed that these leopards are home to at least 500 leopards.
Despite the fact that the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department has set up approximately 107 cages and begun a laborious operation to capture man-eater leopards, it has not yet brought any relief to the residents who are compelled to remain indoors and are living in constant fear.
Pilana, a village in Bijnor’s Chandpur tehsil that used to be very busy, is now very quiet. Men and women used to work in the fields, shops were busy, and people met at tea stands to talk about politics. Now there is silence. Kids who used to play cricket on the streets are not there anymore, and women do not get together to talk anymore.
People in the town used to have a very busy daily life, but now they have to stay inside after 5 pm because they are afraid of man-eating leopards.
Humare gaon ko kisi ki nazar lag gayi” (Our village has been cursed; things are not the same as they used to be). “Our village used to be the happiest in the whole Chandpur tehsil,” said Kuldeep Mudgal, who lives in Pilana village.
Kuldeep said that the change was caused by a group of man-eating lions.
“Being about 15 km from the dense forest, seeing leopards, which the locals call “Guldar,” was not unusual for the people who lived there.” But everything changed quickly in January 2023, when the first fight between a person and an animal was reported in our area, Kuldeep told News18.
There may be more than one village in the world that has been attacked by leopards. The UP forest department says that there are about 87 towns in four leopard-sensitive tehsils of Bijnor that are considered hypersensitive.
“Because of leopard sightings and conflicts between people and animals, we have put about 87 villages in the four tehsils of Bijnor in the hypersensitive category.”
“These villages are about 8 to 15 km away from the dense forest,” said Gyan Singh, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) for Bijnor.
Singh talked about how hard the UP Forest Department has worked to control the leopard problem in the area. He said that the department has sent a team of foresters to catch the man-eater leopard and has started a hard operation.
Singh said people have been told not to go get feed by themselves, play music or the radio on their phones while they are out in the field, or form groups.
In addition to letting the locals know about the dangers and telling them not to go outside at night, the department has also set up about 107 cages in different places to catch the man-eating leopards. But the attack on the locals is still something that happens all the time.
25th killing since January 2023
A 30-year-old farmer was killed by a leopard in Bijnor’s Chandpur tehsil on August 29 at night. This was the most recent attack in a long line of leopard attacks in Bijnor.
Locals say the attack happened when the farmer, whose name was Brijpal Saini, went out into the field to get food for his animals.
“The family heard a loud shriek of Brijpal while he was going to get some food.” When the family members ran to the field, they saw marks of blood. The locals searched for almost an hour before finding the farmer’s half-eaten body lying in the fields, the villagers said.
The farmer Brajpal Saini left behind a wife, two children, and himself. His body was found in a Bagadpur farm field, only partly eaten. His back and chest were badly hurt. This is the 25th death from a leopard bite since January 2023 and the fourth in the past month.
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The tour of the Minister
On September 2, Dr. Arun Kumar, who is the independent charge minister of state for forests in Uttar Pradesh, also went to Jalalpur Bhood, which is one of the leopard-infested places.
The minister met with people in the area, promised all possible help, and talked to local officials and representatives, stressing the need to move right away to stop more deaths.
He ordered that cages and camera traps be put up in places where leopards are often seen and made sure that the affected towns had power as soon as possible to make the nighttime safer.
About 500 leopards are still out there, after 67 were caught and 35 were killed.
The Forest Service has caught about 65 lions so far. The most recent one was caught on September 10 in the village of Hur Nagla in the tehsil Nagina.
“The cage was set up in a field near Hur Nagla village in Nagina tehsil when the villagers told us that they had seen a leopard.” When the people from the town went to the field the next morning, they saw a female cat stuck in the cage. “They told the forest service,” Singh said.
He said that the same day they got the news about the leopard that got stuck in a dry well by mistake. “Our team was able to save the leopard, and we later put it in a cage,” Singh said.
