Leopard killing puts focus on mob frenzy

HALDWANI : The beating up of a leopard cub to death in Bajpur has once again raised the issue of crowd management in such situations.

The leopard had attacked an old man working in the fields, which enraged the local people and they attacked the leopard with sticks and weapons.

The animal succumbed to the injuries.

Last year, a man-eating tiger had killed a labourer in the Dabka river at Nainital district. The tiger was surrounded by the forest department teams inside the jungle when some people reached there and created a ruckus. In the commotion, the leopard was pinned under the jaw of a JCB machine thus killing it.

In October 2016, a man-eating tigress had created havoc for around one and a half months in Peerumadara.

The forest department employees were carrying out a search operation at the probable sites of the tigress’ presence when some people moved around with weapons, thus hampering the search work.

However, the tigress was later captured.

At that time, the forest department had said that they would be sensitising people about the way they should conduct themselves at times of attacks by wild animals.

The proposed man-animal conflict centre that would be built at the Haldwani Zoo would also have a training module in this subject.

Parag Madhukar Dhakate, the conservator of forest, Western Division, said that a Human Wildlife Mitigation Training Centre would come up in Haldwani soon, which would deal with the issue in a comprehensive manner.

“The funds have been released from the centre that would be used to build the centre in the Haldwani zoo,” he said.

“We will have to sensitise all the stakeholders including the local people, the forest department employees and the policemen because they are not aware of the various ways for tackling the situation,” he said.