IDUKKI: Inspired in part by the Malayalam movie Pulimurugan, a man from Munnar took up the role of a hunter to take revenge on a leopard which killed his cow. However, the act has landed A Kumar, a Kannimala resident, in the custody of the Forest department. On Saturday, he was brought for evidence collection to Kannimala, after having been arrested last week. He will be produced before the court on Monday.
An adult leopard was found killed with a snare in the Kannimala Lower Division of KDHP in Munnar by forest officers on August 8. During investigation, forest officers came to know about Kumar from the local people, who said he had vowed to kill the leopard which killed his cow one-and-a-half years ago. As the cow’s milk was the only source of income for Kumar, its death saddened him.
He confessed to officers that he watched several movies, including Pulimurugan, to get an idea about how to trap leopards and kill them. He decided to set a snare after identifying the area through which the leopard enters the human habitation from the nearby forest. His wait each night hoping to see the leopard getting trapped in the snare continued until August 8, when people informed him that the animal was lying dead in the snare.