An adult male leopard was trapped in a cage laid by the state forest department for a Himalayan black bear at Kilkot tea estate in Jalpaiguri’s Matialli block on Saturday.

Residents of the tea estate had recently spotted a black bear and informed forest officials. As the animal could not be spotted, foresters set up a cage.

However, on Saturday morning, residents heard the growls of a leopard from the cage. The wildlife squad took the leopard to the Gorumara National Park and released it into the wild.

On Friday night, residents of Indong tea estate in the same block of Jalpaiguri witnessed a fight between two wild leopards.

Residents switched on searchlights to make the leopards disperse.

They also immediately alerted foresters posted in the area that two leopards had been spotted at the tea estate.

Accident deaths

Homemaker Chhabi Karmakar, 50, and her brother Ashim, 45, died and at least 10 others were injured in an accident on Friday night in Malda’s Mahadevpur area.

Chhabi, Ashim and their relatives were in an autorickshaw headed for a wedding in Court Station area, when a pick-up van rammed into the rear of the vehicle around 9pm. The autorickshaw overturned.

Doctors at the block hospital in Old Malda pronounced the brother and sister dead. Police have seized both the auto and the pick-up van.

The driver of the pick-up van, however, managed to escape.