A leopard was caged at the Hope tea estate in Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri on Monday morning and later released into the wild.

Sources said that over the past few days, a leopard had been taking away poultry and cattle from the garden. Workers informed foresters, who laid a trap with bait in a plantation of the garden last Thursday.

On Saturday, the cage was relocated to another location. On Monday morning, as workers went to the plantations to pluck tea leaves, they spotted the leopard trapped in the cage.

“During the past week, the leopard had taken away poultry and cattle. We were worried about the safety of workers and their families. Finally, we are relieved that it has been trapped. We asked foresters to see if more leopards have strayed into the garden,” said Gautam Bhattacharya, the zonal welfare manager of the garden.

On Monday morning, a Khunia forest range team took away the leopard and later released it into the Gorumara National Park.

Elephant attacks

An elephant strayed into a farm in Nagrakata block on Sunday night from Jaldhaka forest, devoured paddy, damaged the house of farm owner Sonam Bhutia and left. Another elephant entered the Bamandanga-Tondu tea estate in the same block, damaged a foodgrain godown and left.