A video clip of a mother leopard taking away her cubs to a safer place in the dark of the night has taken the Internet in the region by storm. Two leopard cubs were earlier spotted at Section No 24 of the Muni tea plantation under the Bagdogra Range under the Kurseong Forest Division on Friday.
According to the additional divisional forest officer at Bagdogra under the Kurseong Forest Division, Bhupen Biswakarma, staff from the Tipoo elephant squad and Bagdogra forest range inspected the site where the cubs were found.
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Tea garden related work was suspended in the area to avoid any untoward incident, it is learnt. “They cordoned off the area and installed trap cameras. The mother leopard came at 7.59 pm and took away the cubs, culminating in a successful reunion,” said Mr Biswakarma, who provided the video clips to the media today.
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According to forest officials, they came to know about the cubs from local sources. “The prompt sharing of information from local sources worked. Accordingly, we visited the site and installed two trap cameras. We were monitoring through the cameras.
In the evening, the cameras captured the mother leopard lifting the cubs,” said an official. There are several tea plantations under the jurisdiction of both Darjeeling and Kurseong forest divisions where high number of leopard infestation has been reported, forest officials said.
Man leopard conflict, including in tea gardens, has been common in north Bengal. Leopards are often sighted in tea plantations and villages of the Terai and the Dooars. Female leopards use the drains of tea plantations to keep their newborn cubs.
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