BENGALURU: A young female leopard was killed on the state highway between Kumta and Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district on Sunday morning. This is the second animal to have died in April — taking the number of leopard deaths in Karnataka to nine in the last four months.
According to forest officials, the animal was hit by a speeding vehicle at 3.30 am and the beat staff found its carcass at 4.30 am.
Speaking to Express, Honnavar DCF Vasant Reddy said, “The female leopard was about 3-4 years old and was killed in a hit and run case.
The postmortem was held on Sunday morning and a case has been registered. This is a hilly terrain and the animal when crossing the road would not have seen the sudden oncoming vehicle which hit her at high speed and killed her on the spot,” the DCF added.
Last November, one more leopard had died in the same forest division in a road kill. This had happened at Hiregudda about 60 kilometers from the Sunday accident spot. However, poachers had removed its body parts after the animal’s death. Later the poachers were arrested and a chargesheet was filed.”
It may be recalled that on April 23, a leopard died due to natural causes in Londa forests, Belagavi where its legs were cut off by poachers after its death.
However, this is the second incident of road kill as another young leopard was killed on Bengaluru-Mysuru highway on January 17 in Channapatna
Decrying the rising incidents of leopard road kill in Karnataka, wildlife activists called for more protection measures and implementation of speed regulations and speed breakers on specific spots on state and national highways abounding reserve forests and national parks.
They added, “This is just the tip of the iceberg as most incidents of road kill are not reported. Not just leopards and panthers but deers, bisons and other herbivores are killed on highways due to over speeding vehicles. There is no monitoring or checks on speed limits when driving within the limits of protected areas which has resulted in the death of many carnivores and herbivores when crossing
the road.”