A leopard that crossed from India injured three people, a woman among them, at the Amjhol border in Gotamari union, Hatibandha upazila, Lalmonirhat, on Sunday afternoon (25 October), near border pillar 905. At midnight a drone flown by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) found the animal hiding in a thicket on the border.
According to police and residents, Sharifa Begum, 34, of Amjhol went into a paddy field to look for her goat and saw the cat attacking it. When she screamed, it chased and mauled her. Neighbours rushed in with sticks, and Nazrul Islam, 45, and Afsar Ali, 40, were also hurt. Driven off by the crowd and two blank rounds fired by a BGB patrol, the leopard hid in a rice field.
Thousands of people then ringed the area with sticks. After dark BGB used loudspeakers to warn residents and asked them to keep the paddy fields surrounded so the animal could not escape into the fields or houses, and flew a drone to watch it through the night.
Lt Col Mehedi Imam, commander of BGB's Lalmonirhat 15 Battalion, confirmed on Monday morning that the leopard had been located by drone and that local people kept watch overnight. Two Forest Department teams from Dhaka and Rangpur have arrived and will be shown its position; the Forest Department and law enforcers are working together to capture it safely.
The injured were first taken to Hatibandha upazila health complex; Dr Mamun Rahman of its emergency department said the seriously hurt were sent on to Rangpur Medical College Hospital after first aid. Mosharraf Hossain, officer-in-charge (investigation) of Hatibandha police station, said police and BGB stayed at the scene all night.
Reported by Barta24's district correspondent in Lalmonirhat.
Photo: Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca, illustrative), Jenis patel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Barta24
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