Locals living in fear after leopard sighting near Pune's Wadu-Apti road

Locals in the Shirur taluka of the Pune district have been living in fear after a leopard was sighted on the Wadu-Apti Road. The locals have demanded that the forest department should set up a cage and capture the leopards so that no untoward incidents take place.

Shirur/Pune: Locals in the Shirur taluka of the Pune district have been living in fear after a leopard was spotted by farmers on the Wadu-Apti Road. A farmer named Swapnil Chhabaji Kotwal spotted a leopard while walking in a sugarcane field at night.

Citizens were horrified when they saw leopards roaming in the area at night and again in the morning. The workers had also found 3 cubs about a week ago in the sugarcane fields. Preliminary information coming out of the area indicates that leopards are roaming in search of the cubs.

The farmers in the area are now demanding that the forest department should set up a cage and capture the leopards so that no untoward incidents take place. The incidents of human-animal conflict have skyrocketed over the years due to encroachment into animal habitats or other reasons. Many incidents end with fatalities on one or both sides.