Forest dept officials capture leopard in Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat

Baghpat: Forest department officials captured a leopard in this Uttar Pradesh district on Sunday.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Rajesh Kumar said there were reports of the presence of a leopard in Barnawa village in the Baraut area of Baghpat district. A trap was set up in a sugarcane field adjacent to the village and the leopard's leg got stuck in it on Saturday night, the DFO said.

Around 6 am on Sunday, a man saw the leopard and raised an alarm.

Police and forest department teams reached the spot subsequently.

The DFO said as the forest department team tried to tranquillise the leopard, it managed to free itself from the trap and entered a graveyard. After hours of hard work, the forest department team was eventually able to capture the big cat, Kumar said.

He said the five-year-old male leopard is completely healthy and will be released in the forest of the Shivalik hills.