A full-grown male leopard was caged on Thursday morning at the Jalan tea estate near Assam Medical College Hospital (AMCH) in upper Assam's Dibrugarh district.
This is the third leopard caged at the Jalan tea estate within a month, stated a local media report.
A local from the area said, "For past several days, the leopard was spotted regularly at the tea garden area. The leopard took away the domestic animals and sometimes killed them. This was the third leopard caged within a month."
"We have seen the leopard many days in the tea garden area and the women folk working in the tea garden are now afraid of plucking tea leaves due to the presence of the leopard. Today, the leopard was successfully trapped inside the iron cage," said a tea worker.
Meanwhile, the caged leopard was taken to the Jokai reserve forest for release by forest officials.
Dibrugarh forest range officer, Pranjal Baruah said, "After complaining from the tea garden management, we placed an iron cage in the area to trape the animal. On Thursday morning at around 3 am, the leopard was successfully caged. There are at least five leopards in the area and we have caged three of them so far."
Baruah further added, "Due to the shrinking of forest covers, the leopards come from the forest in search of food. Mostly, leopards take refuge in the tea garden areas or on the top of the trees."