Leopard, elephant calf die; forest beat officer injured

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, February 11: With the forest cover in and around Guwahati having shrunk to a great extent, the capital city has turned into a place for animals in the wild to meet their end. Reports of wild animals having killed by the man or otherwise keep coming almost regularly from various parts of this fast-increasing city. Two such latest reports came from Deepor Beel and Chandrapur, on the outskirts of the city today.

At Chandrapur, a leopard got its feet cut by a speeding train last night. The feline was lying with a pool of blood on the train track. On being informed of the incident, forest beat officer Debabrata Sarma rushed to the spot with a team of police personnel to rescue the animal in distress. While trying to remove the leopard from the train track, the big cat attack him by biting him of his left palm. Despite utmost efforts, Sarma could not free his hand from the injured animal that took a portion of the forest official’s palm.

Some police personnel also sustained injuries while trying to rescue the forest official from the clutch of the leopard. The forest official also sustained injuries in his right leg. He was admitted to a city hospital last night and operated upon.

Meanwhile, the leopard dies last night.  The other incident is the death of an elephant calf in Deepor Beel, a biodiversity hotspot near the city. The beel is frequented by elephant herds regularly, and last night too, a herd of elephants came to the beel, the local people said. The carcass of an elephant calf was spotted on the water of the beel near the view point this morning. It is suspected that calf might have met its end for not being able to swim.

According to the local people, the herd of elephants went back to the hills this morning.