July 23, 2020. Leopards will be counted in the Bhanu municipality of Tanahu, which has the most impact. The Division Forest Office is going to count the leopards in the forest here to manage the human-wildlife conflict.
Six children have lost their lives in a year in the district due to the leopard attack. Three of them are from the Bhanu municipality.
Kedar Baral, chief of the Division Forest Office, said that the leopards started invading human settlements after the food of the leopards was disappearing in the forest area. “Leopards found in the forest are being killed by humans, so leopards have started coming to the settlements in search of food, which has led to leopards attacking and killing humans,” he said.
According to him, the leopards here will be counted in the fiscal year 077/78. For this, the office has surveyed the forest area within the Bhanu municipality. About 36 points have been identified in the 4,200-hectare forest area. “We have made a program to count the leopards here by connecting cameras at each point,” he said. “Along with the leopards, we also count the food species of the leopards.”
According to Baral, leopards will not enter human settlements and will not attack humans if their food species is protected. For the conservation of leopard food species, grassland condition study, pond conservation, and other programs will be conducted.
“If there are no food species of leopard in Bhanu, a campaign will be launched to conserve such species,” he said.
According to him, the main challenge is to conserve the food species of the leopard to make it accessible to human settlements.
“In the past, there were plenty of wild animals in the forest, so leopards used to make food for them, but nowadays such wild animals have left the pine,” he said. He informed that pond conservation programs are also being conducted in the forest area.
Five deaths a year
Five children have lost their lives due to the leopard attack in the last fiscal year 076/77. Of them, two are from Bhanu municipality, one from Shuklagandaki municipality, one from Bandipur municipality, and one from Aabukhaireni municipality. A person of the Bhanu Municipality has been injured in a leopard attack.
Ashish Bania, 4, of Jamune Gaihra, Bhanu Municipality-1, Hrithik Roka, 7, of Fusretar, Bhanu Municipality-2, Rabin Nepali, a 22-month-old boy of Ratmata, Shuklagand Municipality-3, Pujan Sinjali, 10, and Ishaq Sunar, 10, of Lohipakha in Bandipur Gaonpalika-4 was killed by a leopard on January 27.
Eight leopards have been captured and rescued during the period as the number of human attacks has increased. The Division Forest Office, in collaboration with the Community Forest, had taken the leopard under control. For this, the community forest had made a wooden cage. The office had provided financial assistance for the construction of the wooden cage.
According to the office, five leopards from Bhanu Municipality, two from Bandipur Municipality, and one from Beas Municipality have been taken under control and relocated safely.
