bijnor bijnor district comprising 70 forest area is witnessing unprecedented rise in mananimal conflict fourteen leopards have died since november last year and some of them were killed by villagers in 2020 at least six humans fell prey to leopard attacks the only agency that can help curb these conflicts the forest department is fighting with just 50 of the staff allotted as the posts are lying vacant for years in a recent meeting of forest divisionlevel officers at amangarh tiger reserve bijnor dfo anil kumar patel raised the issue of staff and other facilities to curb mananimal conflict talking with toi patel said earlier there were around 20 villages in the district where incidents of mananimal conflict were reported now the entire district has turned into a sensitive area leopards have expanded their area they are thriving in sugarcane fields leopard sightings in every nine to 10 villages is common given the scenario the dfo said we need sufficient staff to keep a close vigil on sensitive areas we also dont have elephant and dog squads for patrolling these issues were raised at the global tiger forum gft meeting a team led by gtfs secretary dr rajesh gopal imparted training to the forest officials on how to reduce man animal conflict on its part the forest department is conducting awareness campaigns among villagers to make them aware about the steps they can take to avoid a conflict with the leopard