Bijnor (Uttar Pradesh), May 12 (IANS): The forest personnel have rescued a three-month-old leopard cub that was caught in a trap set up near a graveyard on the outskirts of the Jahanabad village in Bijnor district.

The cub, rescued on Monday evening, was trapped a day after a leopardess was spotted with two cubs at the Mussoorie village, about 35 km from Jahanabad village.

According to the villagers, someone spotted the cub in the trap and the forest authorities were informed.

Forest authorities rushed to the scene and rescued the cub. They released it into the nearby jungle area so that it could find its way back to its mother.

Bijnor Divisional Forest Officer M. Semmaran said, "Our team reached the spot and rescued the cub. Now, we have released it into jungle area so that it can go back to its mother who seems to be around the spot where the cub was trapped."

The area where cub was found is near the Ganga river.

"We have appealed to the villagers not to harm the leopard family," the official said.

The villagers of the Mussoorie village had spotted a leopardess with two cubs lurking in the sugarcane fields on Sunday morning.

Camera traps were installed in the area to locate the leopardess. The forest team set up cages to trap them.

Since the first week of January, there had been no cases of leopard attacks on humans till last week when five villagers were attacked in the Chandpur area.

The villagers there had cordoned off the sugarcane fields, where it was hiding. A joint team of forest and police officials had rushed to the scene and tried to trap the big cat. But the leopard managed to slip away.