Bijnor (Uttar Pradesh), Jan 14 (IANS): Two leopards have been killed in the past one week, but more big cats are on the prowl in Uttar Pradesh's Bijnor district, prompting the forest officials to warn the locals about any imminent attack.

A partially-eaten carcass of a 'nilgai' calf (blue bull) was found in a sugarcane field in the Himpur village in Bijnor on Monday evening after which forest officials have sounded an alert in the nearby villages.

Forest officials have set up cages with bait and installed several camera traps. While the killer leopard has been caught on camera, it has not yet bitten the bait.

A few days ago, on January 6, villagers had shot dead a leopard in Bijnor's Bhogpur village, hours after it killed a schoolboy near his school.

Another leopard was beaten to death by the locals in the Kanth area in Moradabad district on January 9.

Since November 27, six people have been mauled to death by leopards in the Bijnor district.

In view of the increasing man-animal conflict in the area, forest officials have also advised villagers to move about in groups in the affected area.

The villagers have been reporting numerous leopard sightings at various places while the forest department has been preparing a plan to tag the leopards and track their movement on the GPS map.