Team Herald
CANACONA: A man from Sadolxem in Canacona was terrified when he discovered a fully grown leopard lying and relaxing in the balcony of his rented house after he returned home on Friday late evening.
Recalling the terrifying incident, Dinesh Pagi said, “It was a close call as the leopard could have attacked me. At that time my wife and three children aged 15, 13 and 6 years were in the house and if any of them had to open the front door the unimaginable could have happened.”
With farmers clearing vast estates of cashew plantations of its bushes and undergrowth during this time of the year, it is not uncommon to see carnivorous animals like leopards straying in human settlements in Canacona taluka.
However, till date no major incident of leopard attacks on human beings in Canacona has been reported except the attack by a leopard on a farmer in Mashem last year in which farmer suffered injuries to his neck and other parts of his body.
It was also widely reported, a few years ago, of the daring act of an old woman from Cola who had escaped from the clutches of death. She fought back the leopard when he attacked her while she was in her small house and in a swift move she escaped out of her house and locked the leopard in her house.
Forest officials say that during this time of the year with open and clear cashew plantations, the wild animals find it hard to catch their prey and strays in residential areas; sometimes ending up in the wells while chasing their prey. “Whenever encounters like these are reported to us, we set a trap and catch the straying leopards,” a forest official said.
Their population has grown exponentially and during the last year alone the Forest Department had rescued three fully grown leopards that had accidently fallen into open wells at Poinguinim in Canacona taluka.
“This magnificent animal may be listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red list, with protection from being harmed by human beings but the entry of these animals in villages during night time is keeping locals worried about their safety and their live stocks. It is high time that the Forest Department acts and shift some of these leopards to places where they have become extinct and allow locals to live without the fear of being attacked,” expressed Diego Da Silva who himself has seen leopards close to his residence in Galgibag.
