bijnor with sugarcane cultivation drawing to an end in bijnor forest department have often rushed to the hitherto bare agricultural fields to rescue several wild animals including leopard cubs and hog deer besides sighting of leopards has also increased manifold keeping the foresters on their toesbijnor district is rich in wildlife and also has the second largest area under cane cultivation in the state over the years the cane fields have become home to several herbivores and carnivores particularly leopards after every harvesting season the wildlife lose their cover and are exposed the chances of mananimal conflict increase that is when the forest department has to step in to protect both man and animalslast week for instance six nilgai stuck in a pond at salmabad village 5km from district headquarters were rescued by the department chased by hunting dogs the nilgai landed in a swampy pond and were stuckin a another incident at shakarpur village a foresters team rescued a nilgai which was attacked by canines later two civet cat cubs and two wild cat cubs were rescued at bhura nangali and chandpur respectively a barn owl two pythons and a hog deer trapped in different pockets of the district were rescued and set freerecently a leopard cub was rescued from jahanabad village at present a search is on to catch a leopard that has injured 11 people in an area bordering bijnor and amroha districts bijnors divisional forest officer m semmaran said sightings of wild animals have increased manifold after cane harvesting our staff is on the alert and rescue operations are on a dozen of wild animals and birds have been rescued recently we have appealed to villagers to inform forest staff if they find any wild animal near populated areasaccording to sources poachers may exploit the situation and hunted wild animals in such prevailing situationseveral cases of bull and cows slaughtering have surfaced in the last some days