Srinagar, March 3 (ANI): Wildlife officials tranquilized and captured a leopard after it strayed into a village and mauled a young boy in Srinagar district in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday (March 3).

Villagers of Wuyan village intimated wildlife officials about the leopard, who laid a trap for the beast. But it could be captured on the third day.

The officials tranquilized the leopard and kept it in a cage to prevent it from harming others or get harmed by the villagers.

“Two days before, it (leopard) injured a small boy Mudasir Ahmad Dar. Wildlife officials laid a trap for the beast and after two days they achieved success in capturing the animal. We are breathing a sigh of relief as earlier we were afraid to move out of the house, but now we can freely roam around in the evening,” said Fayaz Ahmad Bhat, a local of the region.

Meanwhile, the animal has been taken to a Dachigam National Park, where it would be released in its natural habitat.

With their natural habitat depleting sharply, leopards often find their way into villages on the edges of forests, where they are either captured or killed.

In 1997, India had an estimated 7,300 leopards in the wild but conservationists say the number is now likely to be much lower than this figure. (ANI)