A leopard pounced on a carpenter riding a two-wheeler and mauled him to death in a tea garden in Jalpaiguri district on Monday night.

Safikul Islam, 50, had been to Aibheel tea estate for some work. The carpenter was returning home at Salbari inthe block when the leopard attacked him around 10pm.

“Islam was returning home on his two-wheeler when a leopard pounced on and injured him,” said a forest officer.

Islam raised the alarm and some local people rushed to help him. They took him to the super-specialty hospital in Malbazar from where he was referred to Jalpaiguri. On the way, the carpenter succumbed to injuries.

The Aibheel tea estate is near the Gorumara National Park and Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary.

Elephant found dead

The carcass of a wild elephant was found in the Baikunthapur forest division on Tuesday morning.

Sources said local people had spotted the carcass of the adult elephant in the Saraswatipur forest beat area of Rajganj around 10am. Foresters are yet to ascertain the cause of the animal’s death.

Youths thrashed in Malda

Malda: Two youths from Kashmir were roughed up and handed over to police by some villagers in Malda on Sunday evening. The irate residents alleged that the duo were trying to take away a young woman on the pretext of marriage.

Sources said Nazir Mohammad Dar and Altab Mohammad Dar — both in their early thirties — had reached Baidyanathpur, a village under the jurisdiction of Baishnabnagar police station, around 20 days back.

Police have detained the duo and rescued the woman whom they kept in their hideout in Calcutta.

SOUMYA DE SARKAR