local *FH

[lists user]

I saw this code piece in perldoc perldata,

           sub newopen {
               my $path = shift;
               local  *FH;  # not my!
               open   (FH, $path)          or  return undef;
               return *FH;
           }
           $fh = newopen('/etc/passwd');


why it say a 'local *FH' here?
why not just,

    open FH,$path or return undef;
    return *FH;

thanks!

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