At least 13 people were injured in Duliajan township of Tinsukia district of Assam by a leopard on Sunday before it succumbed to bullets fired by security personnel.
Senior forest department officials said the leopard entered the Oil India Ltd's residential zone at around 7 am on Sunday morning and attacked an old person and four others who came to save him.
Forest personnel from Doomdooma rushed to the spot and fired two capsules of tranquilisers at the animal.
A huge crowd gathered at the spot and the leopard, who was yet to fall asleep due to the tranquiliser, attacked and injured at least eight others, including an army captain.
At this security forces personnel posted in the area fired at the animal and killed it, they said.
Divisional Forest Officer, Digboi division, P. Sivakumar, told The Hindu that security personnel, including Army jawans and those from OIL, fired three to four rounds after a forest department team fired two tranquiliser darts on the leopard. “Before the darts could work, people went near the animal and it panicked and attacked them.
Immediately, some security personnel fired at it,” he said. Here, forest personnel are seen grappling with the animal after it was shot.
Keywords: leapord killing, man-animal conflict
Population is ever growing in country and there are no room for wild
animals here.Even tribal people are evacuated from their Milenia old
homes for economic zones.It is sad and cruel but it is the grim reality.
Sad NEWS. This beautiful animal had to face the wrath of homo-sapiens. We cant brood over what has happened but can certainly can be wiser in the future. Animals of our jungle know not to keep company with human beings...but inadvertently they come in contact with us and if that creates panic...better processes should be in place to handle the situation. How about having regular drills among a task force set up to deal with these situations? 1. cordon the area so that there are no onlookers 2. Allow just the required no. of trained personnel to manage the rescue operation 3. Relocate the animal to the jungle without stressing it Immediate term Why not have sensitization program at schools, offices, etc that educates the people to be more empathetic towards their ecosystem? I know the people of the town; they along with the officials at the department can form a ad-hoc group to deal with future challenges!
really sad!
What a bunch of morons to go near an animal that is yet to fall unconscious. Why the hell this supposed army captain or the other officials involved take charge and keep ppl or the rest of the officals away from the animal. I believe these idiots might have gone close to the animal to show off their ABILITY as morons. I was ashamed when i went to visit a national park in Australia, the first thing they said about the lions and tigers were that India is lacking proper conservation method and probably these animals will become extinct sooner or later!
This is not the first time that the Assam Forest Department has displayed total incompetence. There are laws under which you can prosecute the trigger-happy Army Captain and the security persons. You can't expect that wrong and incompetent authority.
It's the people's fault to go near the leopard before it could fall unconscious. It's obvious for the leopard to show its wild instincts when feel threatened; that's why it is a wild animal. but it is essential for humans not to show their wild instincts on those creatures that lack rationality.
Please Email the Editor