Rare leopard snared in Tripura village

AGARTALA, March 4: The capture of a rare leopard by villagers in Rangamatia village near Sonamura subdivision in West Tripura has taken the wildlife conservation section of the forest department by surprise as there is officially no tiger or leopard population in the forests of Tripura. According to the forest department officials, three Muslim peasants of Rangamatia village Abdul Malek Mia, Aktar Hossain and Shahjahan Bhuiyan spotted the "clouded" leopard while working on their field along the Gomati river in Sonamura subdivision on February 26. They laid a crude trap for the animal and snared it. As the news of the capture spread, a large number of villagers thronged the site. The four-feet leopard with black spots and stripes was handed over the forest department. It was later released at the Hirondwip share forestry farm. Sources in the forest department said the leopard entered the Rangamatia village from the nearby Trishna wildlife sanctuary. Every year, a number of wild animals including hares, deer and bisons stray into human habitats from the Trishna sanctuary in Sonamura during the lean season from January to April because of food and water crises. "While most of them get killed, some are handed over to us," the source said. Replying to a query by TUJS legislator Rati Mohan Jamatya in the ongoing budget session, forest minister Narayan Rupini said according to the 1999 animal census, there were no tigers in the state though there were 64 elephants. However, the minister's reply made it clear that in the reserve forest beyond the periphery of the Gomati wildlife sanctuary, there were four "ordinary" leopards. Commenting on the plight of wildlife in the state, senior forest department officials said there was a time when the forests abounded in tigers, elephants, rhinos and bisons besides other species of animals and birds. One of the kings of Tripura, Jashodhar Manikya, was forced by Mughal emperor Jahangir to send elephants to Delhi as nazrana in 1615. "When the Assam-Agartala national highway was being built in the early Fifties, many labourers were killed by tigers while herds of elephants swamped Agartala town. But the progressive decline in the forest cover has led to a near-total decimation of animal population," the source said. They also expressed concern over the denudation of the state's forest cover to only 17.35 per cent, according to an assessment made by the Forest Survey of India in 1997.