From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Three cubs of clouded leopard were rescued by forest personnel and sent to the zoo in Guwahati on Tuesday. The cubs were spotted by local people near the railway yard in Mathgharia area of the city and informed the forest department and police officials.
Locals also captured the cubs and handed over to local police and forest department officials.
The forest personnel then took the cubs to Assam State Zoo where those will be looked after by zoo veterinary staff. Guwahati and nearby areas witnessed several incidents of leopards straying into human habitations since December last year. Twelve straying leopards have been killed by people in various parts of Guwahati city during the last three months. In order to deal with the rising incidents of man-leopard conflict, Assam forest department has constituted a Rapid Response Teams (RRTs). The government has also put in place a 24X7 helpline – with telephone number 03612630046 – to which the RRTs will respond immediately.
Assam govt recently constituted a committee to probe into the frequent incidents of leopard straying into various localities of Guwahati city. The committee submitted its report with recommendations to tackle the problem to the government last week. The committee was headed by Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Suresh Chand. Guwahati has a number of wildlife species including several highly endangered ones in the forest areas in its outskirts and the hills within the city. 20 leopards including several cubs have been killed in the city in the past two decades. The 216-sq km Guwahati has nearly 26.42 sq km area marked as reserved forests, which have been vastly encroached upon, a senior forest official said.
