RANCHI: Forest officials in Jharkhand are in a fix over issuing an order to shoot the man-eating leopard, which has killed at least four persons, including three kids in Garhwa and Latehar during December.
According to forest officials, despite the fact that a recommendation has already been made by Palamu Regional Chief Conservator of Forest (RCCF) Kumar Ashutosh in this regard, they are reluctant to issue a ‘shooting’ order as it might create a ruckus by the animal rights activists.
“Our first attempt will be to trap the leopard as in both cases it is bound to attract ruckus from separate groups of people. Animal rights activists will be up in arms if the ‘shooting’ order is issued against the man-eater leopard,” said a senior forest official requesting anonymity.
People have already started questioning the recommendation of a shooting order made by the RCCF, he added.
Meanwhile, Principal Conservator of Forests (Wild Life) Shashikar Samanta, who is authorized to issue shooting orders, said that they are 'keeping a wait and watch' to study the leopard’s behaviour.
“No human has been killed in the last 10 days and no any such attempt has been made by the leopard therefore we are keeping a wait and watch. We will wait for another 2-3 days and if the leopard doesn’t get caught we will issue shooting orders,” said the PCCP (Wild Life).
Meanwhile, all attempts are being made to catch the leopard, he added. PCCF (Wild Life) informed that an animal trap was placed on Wednesday. They are expecting the leopard to come again on the spot on Thursday night and will try to catch it, he said.
“We will also keep a watch that whether the leopard killed people accidentally or it intends to become a habitual man-eater. All these technicalities are kept into consideration before taking any decision to avoid any mistake,” said Samanta.
Issuing a shooting order will be the last resort, only if his tendency of man-eating continues for another few days, he added.
Samanta said that an expert team has been formed to identify the particular man-eater leopard so that no innocent animal gets killed during the shooting. So far, an order of tranquillizing the leopard has been ordered which itself has limitations, he said.
Notably, on December 28, a 12-year-old boy was killed by a leopard at around 6 pm in Kushwaha village. Earlier, on December 10, the man-eater attacked a 12-year-old girl at Ukamad village in Latehar district.
The second incident took place on December 14, when a 9-year-old child was attacked in Rodo village of Garhwa district. The third incident occurred in Ranka block on December 19, where a 7-year-old girl died in a leopard attack.
Similarly, in the first week of January, an elderly man was killed by a wild animal, suspected to be the same leopard, in the Barwadih block under Palamu Tiger Reserve. Jharkhand forest department has installed over 50 trap cameras, one drone and a large number of forest officials to catch the ‘man-eater’ leopard. The department has also roped in Hyderabad-based celebrated hunter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan to tranquillize it and catch the big cat, which is still at large.