Saturday, 03 September 2022 | PNS | Pauri
A leopard which had allegedly killed a boy in July was shot dead by authorized hunters at Barath village in Paithani range of Garhwal forest division on Thursday night. A leopard had killed five-year-old Aryan in Barath village of Pauri district on July 28. The villagers had been demanding since then that the leopard be declared a man-eater and shot by the Forest department.
Garhwal divisional forest officer Mukesh Kumar told this correspondent that earlier in July, a leopard had carried away a five-year old boy from in front of his mother at about 8 PM in the village. One cage was installed in the village boundary to trap the leopard, but the leopard was not trapped. The department then sought permission from the chief wildlife warden to deploy hunters.
Kumar said that the chief wildlife warden allowed shooting the leopard as a last option. Hunter Joy Hukel was deployed in the area to get rid of the leopard. It is being said that after watching the leopard for 15 days in the forest of Barath, Hukel shot the leopard at about 11:30 PM on Thursday. The DFO said that the leopard’s body was taken to the Paithani range.
