MARIANI: A ten-year-old child was injured in yet another incident of human-animal conflict in the state of Assam. This is the most recent development in a chain of incidents involving wild animals, especially elephants and leopards.
The incident took place in the Jyoti Nagar locality near the Forest Office in Mariani town. According to local sources, the child had gone outside his residence to take part in the Kali Puja celebrations at the Jyoti Nagar Kali Puja Mandap in the evening. And the wild animal reportedly attacked him on his way to the festival. He was taken to a medical facility in Mariani, where he was administered first aid.
Local people had mentioned that a wild leopard had been prowling the area near the forest campus of Mariani for almost a month. The animal had managed to injure several people and kill livestock during this duration. Even after mounting several operations, the forest department employees remain unsuccessful in trapping or chasing away the wild leopard back into the forest area.
The same leopard is expected to have injured two persons a few days back. The incident took place in the Forest Colony locality of Mariani in the Jorhat district of the state. On the morning of Thursday, the wild leopard attacked and injured two people in the locality. The injured people were identified as Punya Khakhlary and Prasanta Gogoi. Both were admited to the Mariani Railway Hospital for proper treatment. Meanwhile, the forest department officials have launched a massive search operation to capture the wild leopard. This incident came to light a day after leopard pug marks were noticed in the locality.
About a month back, in a bid to ensure the well-being of the people of the locality and protect both humans and leopards from possible human-animal conflict, the forest department had set up and a leopard got caught in this trap. The incident took place in the Kakojan Tea Estate in the Naksari locality of the Mariani religion. A wild leopard had been moving around in the tea garden and causing terror among the residents and workers. After several requests from the local people, the forest department finally deployed a cage to trap the wild animals.
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