TANAHUN, Dec 18: After failing to catch the man-eater leopard despite intense search for three weeks, the District Forest Office (DFO) of Tanahun has installed foot-hold traps in probable areas of community forest in Bhanu Municipality where they suspect the leopard might be caught.
The locals were having sleepless nights since the rampaging wild leopard started mauling villagers, especially small children. The District Forest Office (DFO), Tanahun has set up the foot-hold traps in Majhuwa -Okhle Community Forest (MOCF). The locals and government authorities are trying to catch the leopard after it killed two minors within a span of a 17 days during last month.
According to DFO, eight foot-hold traps have been set up in the community forest. Kedar Baral, chief of the DFO, informed Republica that these traps have been set up in places where the footsteps of the leopard were seen earlier.
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"We did enough searching but failed to find the leopard," said Baral, adding, "That's why we adopted this new method by bringing foot-traps from Tandi."
This has made the locals hopeful that the leopard, which has been terrorizing the whole village, will be caught this time. Earlier, cameras installed in various places had captured few images of the leopard.
"It is not possible for the leopard to escape the trap if it walks through the way where these traps have been fixed," Baral added.
In order to monitor the activities of the leopard, the DFO has also installed four CCTV cameras in the forest area.
On February 13, six-year-old Bishal Shrestha of Bhanu-3 was killed by a leopard. More recently, Ranjita Lamsal, 4, of Bhanu-4 and Amrit Gurung, 10, of Bhanu-2 were also killed in leopard attacks on November 15 and December 1 respectively.
