Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, June 13: In yet another case of human-animal conflict, a leopard was captured and killed by villagers of Kangstung Yimsen in Tuli, Mokokchung district on June 12.
A video of the captured leopard, which went viral on social media, alerted Forest officials.
Wildlife Warden Dimapur, Tokaho Kinimi told Eastern Mirror that the incident was very sad and unfortunate. He informed that the leopard had been killing livestock and dogs in the village, which prompted the villagers to hunt for it. The predator was killed right after its capture, it was informed.
“As soon as we got the news, we alerted officials but the leopard was already killed by the time we could react and save it; it should have been avoided,” said Kinimi. According to him, the meat was then distributed among the villagers.
“We could have relocated it and taken stock of the situation if we had known that the leopard was killing their livestock but it was not reported to our office,” he said.
Kinimi informed that leopards are common in the area and are often seen coming across from Assam. He said that awareness programmes to sensitise the villagers are very important. They will be initiating such programmes soon and educate the villagers on the penalties involved if they are caught killing wildlife, he informed.
The district Forest Officer of Mokokchung, Aochuba Longkumer also said that they had received the news of the capture at around 10 pm on Wednesday. Longkumer said that a team was sent to rescue the animal but was too late.
He informed that leopards come under schedule 1 category of Wildlife Protection Act, which is the highest level of significance ascribed to animals.
“Sensitisation and awareness programmes will be conducted soon to save the animals and strict action should be taken under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972,” he stated. “If we had known earlier that the leopard was killing their livestock we could have compensated and come to some agreement by which the animal also would have survived,” said Longkumer.
