Kasaragod: One of the possibly two leopards terrorising Kolathur village in Bedadka panchayat and nearby places was caught in a cage trap set up by the Forest Department Sunday night, said District Forest Officer (DFO) K Ashraf. The leopard was caught using a dog as bait. The trap was set up at Perladukkam, ward no. 17, of Bedadka panchayat.

Around 9.30 pm, the leopard was trapped, drawing a crowd of over 2,000 people, most with their mobile phones. With Bedadka police stretched thin due to the Chief Minister’s events in the district, only a few officers were available to manage the gathering, said ward member Gopalakrishnan M.

As per rules, Forest officials could remove the leopard from the cage only after a veterinary surgeon certified it as fit. However, as the crowd grew unmanageable and the leopard became restless, officials decided to shift the animal around 11.30 pm, said Kasaragod Forest Range Officer C V Vinod Kumar.

The officer said it was five-year-old female leopard. It was released in a reserve forest in the early hours of Monday, he said, without disclosing the location.

The leopard was caught when people's patience was wearing thin. The big cats had descended from the hill panchayats and were hunting pets and homeless dogs in the midland panchayats, such as Bedadka, Pullur-Periya, and Ajanur, which have no forestland.

The forest department kept the trap at Avalangal in Niduvot because there was a huge cave nearby where they spotted pugmarks. "Rubber tappers had reported sighting leopards, too," said panchayat member Gopalakrishnan. This is not the one that was trapped in the snare. "That was a huge leopard. This one is small. There are around six leopards in these areas," he said

At 6.30 pm, three hours before the leopard was caught at Kolathur, a male goat weighing around 10 kg was lifted from Chakkittadukkam village near Odayanchal in Kodom-Belur panchayat, 25 km away. The goat belonged to K J George. "My three goats were grazing on Janardhanan's property when one was found missing," George said.

The farmer and neighbours raised an alarm and launched a search. They found the dead goat nearby, bearing bite marks consistent with a leopard attack.

Four days ago, on February 20, a leopard lifted a three-year-old Labrador, weighing around 40kg, from the house of Abraham Joseph, a rubber tapper at Ayampara in Pullur-Periya panchayat. The leopard ate the dog in the backyard and left behind its head and a hindleg.

Bedadka panchayat president Dhanya M had told Onmanorama that rubber tappers were scared to go to work in the morning because of the frequent sightings.

Around 3km from Perladukam, where the leopard was caught Sunday night, one leopard was caught in an illegal snare meant for porcupines inside a spring cavity at Madanthakode in Varikkulam, ward no. 2 of Bedadka panchayat on February 5. Despite Forest officials waiting and trying for nine hours, the leopard leapt out of the cavity and vanished around 3 am on February 6, just as they fired the tranquiliser dart.

People's representatives, including panchayat president Dhanya, had to intervene to calm people down. Since January 10, leopards have been raiding Bedadka grama panchayat's Kolathur village, lifting dogs from places such as Birikulam, Ramanadukka, and Bavikkadukkam.

Bedadka panchayat member Priya K said leopards lifted pet dogs at Ramanadukka in her Varikkulam ward on back-to-back days on January 23 and 24. "That's when we realised there was more than one leopard in our village," she said. Though Bedadka has no forestland, 3km from Kolathur, across the Erinjipuzha river, is a forest in neighbouring Muliyar grama panchayat where several dogs have gone missing.

On February 1, a leopard was found dead in a private well in Delampady Grama panchayat. It was a six-year-old male who had been dead for five days.

Forest officials have been installing camera traps in areas where leopards are sighted but the big cats may have learned to evade humans and their gadgets.