Team Herald
VASCO: The sighting of a leopard has created fear among the residents of Bhutebhat near Mestawado, Vasco.
However, the Forest Department officials have advised the people to maintain calm and report to the department if they sight the animal again in the area.
Darsheel Valaulkar, a local, who sighted the leopard, informed that he first saw the wild cat in Bhutebhat and later the animal made its way into the adjoining swamps.
Forest official Ramakant Naik said that the sighting of the leopard has direct connection with dumping of garbage in open areas and the consequential increasing number of canines in the areas. “The leopards are ambush predators, but only for dogs or other animals. Though people need not worry about these animals, but should stop dumping garbage into the open like the one seen here at Bhutebhat,” Naik said.
MMC’s former chairperson Deepak Naik said, “Leopard is seen in an area where it was never expected that too in a 500-metre radius of the town and this shows us that they are losing their habitat. For once we have to stop cutting down the forests and endangering these animals,” Deepak said.
