Leopard shot dead after injuring 13

DIBRUGARH: A male leopard was killed by security personnel after it went on a rampage and injured several people in an Oil India Limited colony in Duliajan on Sunday. P Shiv Kumar, divisional forest officer of Digboi forest division, said that the 13 persons injured included army captain Gaurav Joshi of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment based at Tipling and two forest staff. The injured persons were shifted to the Oil India Hospital at Duliajan and Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh.

Kumar said: "We were informed about a leopard straying into a bungalow of an OIL executive on Sunday morning. I accompanied Vaibhav Mathur, DFO (Tinsukia), and a team of veterinary doctors from the Centre for Rehabilitation and Conservation of the Wildlife Trust of India to the spot. By the time we reached, the leopard had attacked five persons. We tried to tranquillize the leopard, but it got agitated - which is normal before sedatives takes effect - and pounced on the large crowd gathered at the spot. The security personnel were left with no option but to shoot it.".