A group of men beat a leopard that entered a residential colony on the Katahbari Pahar area of Guwahati to death before the forest department could intervene. The leopard’s teeth were also removed.
A disturbing video that has been circulating on social media shows locals parading the animal’s carcass as a trophy while spectators cheer on.
While six people – including a minor – identified from the video have been arrested, a search is on for the other people involved in the crime.
‘It was an 8-year-old male leopard which had been initially caught with a rope trap by the locals,’ The Indian Express quoted Rajib Baruah, DFO, Kamrup East Division, as saying. Katahbari Pahar area falls under the Fatasil Reserve Forest of Guwahati.
‘Since the animal’s teeth were also removed, they will also be charged with a case of poaching,’ said Baruah.
Authorities have apprehended another juvenile.
According to locals, proactiveness on the part of the forest department could have stopped the brutality from taking place.
We got a call at 5 am that a leopard had been trapped. When our department officials got there, we saw that the leopard tied with a thin rope around its leg and was asleep on someone’s porch,’ said Baruah, ‘By the time, the zoo authorities reached to rescue it, the leopard escaped.’
Locals followed the leopard inside the forest and killed it. Government sources confirmed that the incident took place in a reserved forest area.
As incidents of man-animal conflict rise across the country, experts say that loss of habitat is one of the major reasons why animals turn to human colonies for food.
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