A leopard was caged at Dikom tea estate in Dibrugarh district of Upper Assam on Saturday night, the third one to be caught by the forest department in a month.

“This is the third leopard caged at Dikom tea estate. Leopards are straying in our locality quite regularly these days as a result of which we cannot go out after dusk. We are spending sleepless nights because of the straying big cats,” Santanu Kurmmi, a garden worker said.

Leopards are straying into the tea garden areas because of the shrinking habitat.

Telegraph file photo

“The local residents informed us about the leopard. We sent our team to the tea garden to rescue the leopard. The animal was later released at Dihing Patkai reserve forest,” said Dibrugarh forest ranger Nareswar Das. He said three leopards were caged and released at Dihing Patkai reserve forest in the past month.

However, man-animal conflict has been on the rise in Assam because of the shrinking habitat. Animals often come out of the forest in search of food.

“Workers of Dikom tea estate complained to us about the straying leopard. We laid a trap for the leopard and successfully caged it,” the forest ranger said.

Recently, a big cat sneaked into the residence of one Mahtab Ahmed in the busy neighbourhood of Paltan Bazar in Dibrugarh.

Another leopard caged: A female leopard was caged at Adhalichuk in Upper Assam’s Golaghat district on Sunday.

The villagers had asked the forest department to cage the leopard, which was allegedly killing domestic animals in the area.

The leopard was trapped in the cage in the wee hours on Sunday and later the forest officials from Golaghat took away the leopard and freed it at Nambar reserve forest.

Additional reporting by Sanjoy Hazarika in Bokakhat