Sajid Raina
Uri, Jun 25 : The hunt for the man-eater leopard in Uri tehsil of North Kashmir’s Baramulla district is turning out to be one of the most challenging task for the wildlife department as almost the ten have passed since the wanted animal had attacked and killed three minors in the area is still untraceable.
The fear of leopard is still haunting people even a week after it killed three minors in the area following which the leopard the declared the man-eater by the wildlife department. The animal is still untraceable despite officials of the forest department making all possible efforts to locate it.
“Even after the passing of the day, the man-eater animal is still not known while the atmosphere of terror in their area remains,” the local told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO). “We are restless. People do not feel safe to go to their nearby fields. The administration is still unable to do anything,” said Mohammad Sultan an elderly local from Boniyar.
Mushtaq Ahmad another local said that their area has three young children because of this man-eating animal and the biggest challenge now is that it is nowhere to be found as a week has passed. “People in the area are scared. We don’t let our little children out because no one now should fall prey to this animal,” he said, adding that Killing this man-eater should have been a priority.
Altaf Ahmad, another local says that every day the people of the area are in doubt that the animal will come and someone may become a victim. However, the wildlife department’s search operations are carried out here every day to kill this man-eating animal, he said.
Nusrat Amin, a local girl, says that the area has been badly affected over the past week because this animal that has not yet been caught can attack anyone. “We don’t even let our young children go to school because of fear,” She said, adding that now everyone’s hope is that soon it should either be killed or it should be caught.
“We’ve urged people not to go out to the fields alone but do so only in groups. While we are trying all possible ways to trap or kill the animal, we need the co-operation of the common people for them to stay safe.” a top wild official said.
He said that their operations along with the teams of protection department, police and sharp shooters continue to find or kill this man-eating animal. However, our hard work is not paying off yet. “It is also possible that the animal might have shifted to other place in view of the disturbance in the area,” he added.
The official however admitted that it has become a bit difficult for their teams to find this animal in the hills.
Last week, the chief wildlife Warden Jammu and Kashmir while terming the animal as man-eater and has issued a shoot at sight order for the leopard. Giving instructions, the wildlife Warden had said that proper identification of the leopard be ensured before it is hunted ensuring that no animal is hunted on account of mistaken identity.
Futher there should be ensured that this permission is not misused by an organization or individual to avail the opportunity for hunting any other leopard in the area under the garb of this permission. Also the body of the animal shall be disposed off by completely burning it to ashes in presence of wildlife Warden North division Kashmir as per the protocol—(KNO)
