Leopard killed by predators in wildlife sanctuary

KOKRAJHAR, April 5 ? A full grown adult male Leopard (Panthera-pardus) was killed by a group of people with ulterior motive inside the Chakrashilla Wildlife Sanctuary recently hours before sunset. After getting information, a team comprising members of ?Green Heart? a nature conservation group in the North East and forest officials of Kokrajhar rushed to Salkocha forest range office where the carcass of the leopard was kept. But before the team reached the forest office, different body parts and organs of the leopard like teeth, claws, tip-off the tongue, one eye ball, sex-organ, tail-tip, whiskers etc were missing. The team also found that the leopard was killed brutally probably with sharp, pointed and lethal weapons as severe injuries were detected mainly around the head. Both the paws were also found to be clobbered with blunt instruments. According to the range officer, Sri Pallav Deka of Salkocha range office, the leopard entered the village and a villager, Gahar Ali, was badly injured by the leopard when he was trying to rescue a calf from the grip of the leopard. Subsequently, a mob of villagers went berserk and killed the leopard with sticks, daos etc. But according to the local villagers, a calf was killed by the leopard inside the sanctuary at 10 am and then it escaped after being chased by a gang of 10 to 12 persons. After a few hours, the leopard came back and the gang of people attacked the leopard with lethal weapons and killed the animal. Tahar Ali who was also involved in the killing was injured. After killing the leopard, it was brought to the home of Tahar Ali and kept overnight by the gang involved. The wildlife division was only 500 metres from the vicinity of the place of occurrence and the incident took place between morning 10 am and 3 pm. Moreover, no initiative was taken by the existing staff of Tintila sub-beat and Kaljani Beat office of wildlife division till the next morning. Later, a police case was registered at Chapar police station (case No. 30/2002) in this connection under Indian Wildlife Protection Act and post-mortem of the carcass was also done by the veterinary doctor of Arrearjhar veterinary hospital. It may be mentioned here that during skinning before final disposal, 2 bullets were recovered from both the forelimbs.