Elephant and leopard menace in Buddhashanti

Locals of Buddhashanti rural municipality in Jhapa district are terrorized after leopard started killing cattle at the rural municipality-8 daily.

Member of Adarsha Community Forest Users Committee, Sitaram Bastola, said that the leopard used to stay inside the community forest in the day and enters in the village in the evening. It has started attacking and killing cattle--goat, cow and pig - for the past two days. He shared that the leopard also killed the goat of Bhojraj Bastola and Deepak Bastola and calf on Wednesday night. Locals complained that though they have knocked the door of Division Forest Office and police administration after the leopard menace, but in vain. Forest Officer at the Division Forest Office Om Bhattarai said they are in the process of constructing a trap for taking the leopard into control. He said they started managing the cage immediately after the locals informed them of the leopard attacks. "We will immediately manage a cage and take the wild cat into control," he added. The Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve has installed automatic cameras at some of the community forests of Mechinagar and Buddhashanti rural municipalities to track the movement of elephants, leopard, tiger and other wild animals. Elephant terror on top of leopard terror Wild elephant is also creating menace along with leopard terror in the area since long. The elephant that usually enters the village when crops start to ripen has consumed and destroyed local Kul Prasad Paudel's maize crop on five kaththas of land last night alone. It has also trampled and damaged the maize and spring rice crop belonging to Sabitra Dangal, Bastola, said.