A one-and-a-half-year-old female leopard was rescued by forest officials after it was caught in a crude snare made up of steel wire, set up by persons believed to be trapping wild boars.
The incident brought into focus the danger such traps posed to wild animals in the region, especially the endangered ones. The snare had been placed on Revenue Department land between the main road and a tea garden at Thaimalai near Kollacombai, a remote part of the Nilgiris.
The leopard was tranquilised to treat the wounds caused when the snare cut into its flesh. It was released into the forests on Wednesday night.
District Forest Officer (the Nilgiris North) S. Ramasubramaniam told The Hindu on Thursday that a team had been instructed to keep track of the animal's movements, to make sure that it recovered totally. Forest officials said the animal had been struggling for several hours to extricate itself for the snare.
Wildlife enthusiasts said the incident was a grim reminder of the growing threat to wild animals from insensitive people. Pointing out that the noose traps were easy to make, Mr. Ramasubramaniam said that usually such methods were resorted to by some plantation labourers or small farmers to trap rabbits and wild boars. Poachers normally did not adopt such methods.
It was a long standing practice, but tigers or leopards rarely got caught in the snares until recently, he said.
