Kasaragod: Leopards are having a field day in Kasaragod, with the Forest Department scrambling to keep up, leaving residents on the edge. After a week of sighting leopards near Ayampara in Pullur-Periya grama panchayat, a three-year-old Labrador was lifted from the house of Abraham Joseph, a rubber tapper. He found only the head and hind leg of his dog named Tiger in his backyard on Thursday, February 20.

Leopards were spotted at Ravaneshwaram in the urban panchayat of Ajanur near Kanhangad town on February 17 and 18, said residents. "After we insisted, the Forest officials installed camera traps near my house. But I don't know if they have a plan to catch the leopards," said Sasi Kalarikkal, a pick-up truck driver from Makki in Ravaneswaram.

Abraham, whose house sits next to SIMET College Of Nursing at Ayampara, said when people complained about spotting a leopard over the past week in his neighbourhood, he laughed it off to their faces. "But it killed my dog itself," he said.

"The remains were found 10 metres from the kennel. The leopard ate our dog sitting in our backyard," he said. "It is scary. We have three daughters," said his wife, Bindu, who quit her job in Delhi and came to live with her family.

The leopard made its kill in the early hours. Abraham said his eldest daughter, a class XI student, stayed up to study till 1 am and he woke up around 2.30 am to tap the rubber trees. Around 3.30 am, a mixed-breed dog he kept locked in a kennel due to its aggression started crying — a frightful cry. "I thought an ant might have gone into its ear. When I went to check, I found Tiger was missing," he said.

Abraham said the Labrador was left outside but tethered to a leash made by doubling the nylon cutting line from a grass-cutting machine and twisting it with a metal chain. "Imagine how strong the leopard must be to snap the leash and carry away a 40-kg dog," he said. The surviving dog has not stopped crying yet, he said.

The District Forest Officer said there was a possibility of two leopards at Kolathur in Bedadka grama panchayat, bordering Pullur-Periya panchayat, and 8km from Ayampara. "Probably, we will catch them soon," he said.

At Ravaneswaram, Sasi, the pick-up driver, said he was checking his mobile phone around 8.30 pm on Monday when he heard his dog cry from inside the kennel. "My children asked me to check. My wife and I flashed two torches into the dark and we saw two shining eyes staring back at us," he said. "We have only heard of leopards on TV and through newspapers. We got scared," he said.

When the leopard walked away, he kept turning back, he said. "The kennel is made of old wooden planks. If we had not been alert, the leopard would have broken into it," he said. A day after the encounter with Sasi's family, their neighbour Anitha saw a leopard chasing a chicken around 12.15 pm, he said.

Forest officials and the Rapid Response Team have installed camera traps at Makki in Ravaneswaram and at Ayyampara in Periya village—10 km apart—after spotting pug marks in the area. There are reports of a leopard lifting a stray dog at Kalliyot near Periya. These places do not have forest areas. On February 5, a leopard was trapped in a laterite cavity at Kolathur.

Despite Forest officials' efforts for nine hours, it escaped into the darkness. Since January 10, leopards have been raiding Bedadka grama panchayat's Kolathur village, picking up pet dogs from areas such as Birikulam, Ramanadukka, and Bavikkadukkam. On February 1, a leopard was found dead in a well in Delampady Grama panchayat.