Leopard attacks forest official during capture mission in Kashmir

Jammu & Kashmir was in the news once again last week, this time for a viral video of a leopard attacking a man during a farcical attempt to capture the animal.

News reports said the leopard entered Fatehpura village in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir and injured two women and a man. Fearing for their safety, locals alerted the authorities.

So far so good. What wasn’t good was what followed, as some uniformed men, supposedly wildlife personnel but looking more like local policemen, mounted an ‘operation’ to ‘capture’ the animal. The men were armed with lathis and stout sticks. No one seemed to have a tranquillizer gun, net, cage, or any other equipment that might have been more appropriate for a task of this nature.

Not surprisingly, the ‘operation’ degenerated into a near disaster. In a clip posted on X, a man in uniform can be seen trying to evade the animal and get his staff lying on the ground, but the animal gets him first. Other uniformed men and some villagers then rush to the rescue and beat the leopard senseless. One man is even seen kicking the animal after it drops to the ground. The official who was first attacked seemed to have escaped with some bruises.

The officials claimed the animal was captured alive and sent to a rehabilitation centre. If the claim is true, one can only be grateful that their ineptitude did not result in any loss of human or animal life. If and when the big cat gets a clean bill of health, it will be released in the wild, the officials said, according to news reports.

No one has offered any explanation for why the personnel, if indeed they were from the forest department, were so unprepared and ill-equipped for the task. If they were simply policemen from the nearest thana, that would give rise to a host of other questions.

In another case reported by News18, a cow had a narrow escape in Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan. The kerfuffle took place when a group of tourists was observing a tiger. Suddenly, the cow appeared and sauntered past, oblivious to the tiger’s presence in the bushes. That’s when all hell broke loose, accompanied by much screaming. Luckily, the bovine managed to escape.

Also Read: Spotted! India now has nearly 14,000 leopards