Villagers under Kotshilla police station of West Bengal’s Purulia district on Saturday beat up an adult leopardess to death and hung its corpse from a tree.
The animal had strayed into Tatuara village which comes under Jhalda block of the district in the afternoon. The animal entered into a house. Within no time hundreds of villages surrounded the animal.
The leopardess attacked the crowd and injured three persons including a policeman. Armed with sticks and axes the villages beat up the animal to death. The tail of the animal was severed and parts of its feet were also chopped off.
“We had sent forest staff along with police to rescue the animal but we were outnumbered by the villagers. Additional forces had to be sent to recover the body,” Divisional Forest Officer, Purulia Omprakash told The Hindu .
The forest officer said that a case has been lodged under the Wildlife Protection Act.
According to him while there have been cases of leopards and hyenas straying into villages in Purulai in the past this is only incident where a leopard has been beaten to death in such a brutal manner.
While straying of leopards is a common is tea gardens of north Bengal it is rare in south Bengal.
