Negligence Causes Trapped Leopard's Death in ASR District

Kakinada: A three-and-a-half-year-old male leopard caught in one of the traps fixed by local farmers in Papampeta and Yellavaram villages of Addateegala mandal in Alluri Sitarama Raju district died as it did not receive treatment in time.

Farmers had fixed the nets to trap monkeys, as they had been spoiling their crops.

However, a leopard got trapped in one of these nets with its waist bound by a wire of the net during the early hours of Thursday. The wire kept cutting into the leopard till forest officials reached the place on being informed by farmers, even though farmers pushed a tractor under the leopard for support and provided it water.

Rampachodavaram divisional forest officer (DFO) G.G. Narentherin and other officials reached the spot and informed officials of the Visakhapatnam zoo, who reached the spot by Thursday evening.

They tranquilised the leopard and removed its entanglement. By then the leopard had died, as both its kidneys had got damaged.

However, there are allegations that an overdose of tranquilisers may have led to the leopard’s death.

Zoo officials and a doctor conducted a post-mortem on the leopard.

Subsequently, they burnt its body in the presence of the mandal tahsildar and revenue officials concerned.

As per the post-mortem report, the leopard’s kidneys and legs had got damaged.
Forest range officer S. Sehansha said had they tried to cut the wire from the waist of the leopard, it is possible that the wild animal would have attacked humans. He said the leopard had died despite their hectic efforts to save it.