Probe ordered after leopard shot dead by forest dept team trying to capture it

MUSSOORIE: Uttarakhand’s forest department has ordered a probe into the killing of a leopard in self-defence by the forest patrolling staff team in Pauri that was sent to tranquilise the animal on September 10, officials said.

Swapnil Anirudh, divisional forest officer in Pauri said he has ordered an inquiry to ascertain what exactly happened there. “I have directed sub-divisional forest officer Pauri and two range officers to conduct the inquiry and submit the report”, he said.

“The team said when they spotted it and tried to tranquilise it, it became aggressive due to which they shot dead the leopard in self-defence”, the senior forest officer added.

The team was sent to tranquillise the leopard after a four-year-old girl was killed on September 5 in a leopard attack, The little girl, Ayesha, was with her grandmother in the courtyard of her home in Dhikwal village in the Khirsu area, 10km from Srinagar in Pauri district, when the leopard pounced on her. Her grandmother raised an alarm after which the villagers rushed to the spot, forcing the leopard to leave. But Ayesha did not survive the deadly attack.

The attack led to panic in the village, prompting forest officials to start the search for the leopard. The patrol team came face-to-face with the leopard at about 9:15pm on Monday. When the leopard became aggressive, officials said they first fired shots in the air but when the leopard did not back down, they aimed at the animal.

This is the second leopard to have been shot down by the forest department over the last year. In 2022, two hunters engaged by the department shot dead a leopard that killed an eight-year-old boy from Akhodi village in Tehri district.

Over 400 people have been killed in leopard attacks in the state since the state was formed in 2000. Human deaths in leopard attacks account for nearly half of the total deaths due to wild animals in the state, reveals the data of the state forest department.

In July 2021, the Uttarakhand Forest Department released instructions for checking and dealing with the man-leopard conflict in the Himalayan state. The directions said that quick response teams be deployed in such areas by the officials concerned where leopard movement is spotted and leopard attacks are being reported. After the leopard attacks, the officials concerned should try to understand the circumstances under which the leopards are attacking and come up with measures to check that such incidents don’t occur in the area in future.

According to wildlife experts, there are many factors due to which it has been difficult to check man-leopard conflict in the state, be it the hilly terrain which provides ample space for leopards to hide to human settlements scattered in hills overlapping with the leopard territories.