It had mauled two people to death in Chandrapur district last month
The state forest department is all set to shoot down a leopard that killed two people in Vejgaon village of Chandrapur district last month.
Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) B Majumdar has issued orders to shoot down the animal that has terrorised people living in the village. Divisional forest officer (DFO), Central Chanda, Rama Rao said, “The orders were received on Sunday. However, our objective is to tranquilise the animal.”
The forest department has made arrangements to trap the animal and guards have been posted at four ‘machans’ in the village to keep a round-the-clock vigil to track
movements of the big cat, the DFO said.
The department took the decision following violent reactions by villagers after the leopard killed two persons in separate incidents on October 2. One of them was killed in full public view.
The police had to deploy around 100 commandos to control irate people, who went to the extent of damaging vehicles of senior forest department officials.
Last year, a tiger was gunned down by the department near Talodhi village in the same district after it killed four people.
Noted wildlife biologist Vidya Athreya from Pune, who visited Vejgaon recently, has supported the decision of state forest department to kill the animal. “Given the situation, there is no other option but to shoot the animal. The aberrant behaviour of the leopard has pushed it on the verge of being killed,” she said.
“Leopards are not known to attack humans, they are attracted by livestock and stray dogs,” Athreya said.
She said leopards had killed around 50 people in Junnar taluka of Pune in 2001-2002. “The killings stopped only after forest department officials trapped over 30 leopards and shifted them out of Junnar. However, this can not be a solution to the problem,” the wildlife expert opined.
a_ashwin@dnaindia.net
