Valley
Woman hurt in leopard attack
A leopard attacked a 69-year-old woman in Kirtipur-3, which is near a wooded area south of Kathmandu on Friday.Anup Ojha
A leopard attacked a 69-year-old woman in Kirtipur-3, which is near a wooded area south of Kathmandu on Friday.
The male leopard, after attacking Hirakaji Maharjan on the road, had then entered the house of Dharma Maharjan, said police.
Family members and neighbours had managed to lock the wild beast on the first floor of the five-storey house.
Technicians and veterinarians from the Central Zoo, who had reached the site almost after three hours, rescued the wild cat and later released it in a forest north of Kathmandu.
Injured Maharjan, who was rushed to Kirtipur Model Hospital, returned home after receiving 12 stitches on her left calf.
Rudra Krishna Gharti, senior veterinary technician at the Central Zoo, who led the rescue team, said it took his team nearly two hours to tranquilise the wild beast.
“We had to struggle to shoot it with tranquiliser guns,” said Gharti, who was also involved in rescuing a female leopard in New Baneshwor on January 9. Nobody was injured then.
According to Sub-Inspector Uddhab Koirala of Kirtipur Metropolitan Police Circle, the wild cat could have come to Kirtipur area from Chobhar or Chandragiri forest areas.
“Leopard sightings in Kirtipur are not rare. People often complain about wile animals wandering into the suburb,” said Koirala.
Conservationists have long been saying that increasing number of sightings—and incidents—by wild cats in city areas are indications that humans are encroaching upon wild animals’ habitats, leading to loss of their home and food source in the woods. Hence, wild animals are forced to come out of their habitats in search of food.
Sarita Jnawali, Project Manager at the Central Zoo, said wild animals also tend to enter city areas when they become old, as they find easy preys in street dogs.
Leopards were found to have sneaked into human settlements in some parts of Bhaktapur and Lalitpur in the past as well.
Earlier in May 2014, police had to shoot a leopard dead in Kapan, Kathmandu, after it attacked two persons.