A four-year-old female leopard died after it got trapped in barbed wire fence at Vazhappuzha, Kollengode, near here on Wednesday. Forest officials were called in when local people found the leopard entangled in the metal fence erected at private property owned by Unnikrishnan Vazhappuzha.
A team of forest officials, including veterinarians, cordoned off the area and tried to rescue the animal without darting at first. However, as the leopard kept on snarling and tried to wriggle out of the tangle, the team had no choice but to dart with mild anaesthetics.
“Our team carefully sedated the leopard, disentangled it, and caged it before administering some antibiotics. Although there were no apparent external injuries, it must have suffered some serious internal injuries. The animal died about an hour after we rescued it,” said K. Vijayananthan, Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF), Eastern Circle.
The leopard appeared skinny and weak. “That must have been the reason for it to stray out of the forest,” said Mr. Vijayananthan. The incident took place about one kilometre from the forest border.
The CCF formed a committee of five members as per the standard operating procedure (SOP) stipulated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to be followed for the disposal of the leopard carcass.
A team of independent veterinarians from the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, will conduct a post-mortem of the leopard on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, the Wildlife Protection and Conservation Society (WPCS) asked the Forest Department to initiate legal measures to address the situation that led to the death of the leopard.
WPCS wildlife officer S. Guruvayurappan said that the leopard had played crucial role in maintaining the ecology in the forest fringes by frequently devouring wild boars and stray dogs. “In the absence of the leopard, the presence of wild boars and stray dogs is likely to increase. And it can be a bigger nuisance for the farmers,” he said.
