Suspected man-eating leopard caged

The forest department on Monday caged a full-grown leopard, suspected to be a man-eater, inside a tea garden in Alipurduar district of West Bengal, a forest department official said.

A leopard has been creating terror in the tea gardens of Madarihat area. The animal killed a 14-year-old girl on December 17 and her body was recovered from another tea garden.

Following this, the forest department set up cage traps at nine places inside several tea gardens of Madarihat.

"A leopard was found inside a cage at Garganda tea garden this morning. It was taken to a rescue centre in South Khayerbari," the official said.

However, it is yet to be ascertained whether the captured animal is the man-eating leopard.

"It could be confirmed only after thorough observation of the leopard," he said.