Leopard could have been rescued: Foresters

LUCKNOW: The team that conducted the post mortem examination of the leopard found three bullet injuries on the body, said foresters on Saturday.

Two were in the upper chest and one on the lower body side. All three bullets had pierced the body and passed through. “A detailed post mortem examination report will be finalised by tomorrow but the team found three bullet injury marks indicating the bullets passed through the body of the animal,” said SK Upadhyaya, principal chief conservator of forest (wild life). The post mortem examination was conducted at the Lucknow Zoo hospital.

Upadhyaya said that the leopard could have been rescued instead of being killed. “The animal should have been rescued, this is our stand on the incident,” he said.

The forest department has lodged an FIR under Wildlife Protection Act at its Sarojininagar forest range office. A separate probe will be conducted by Ayodhya Prasad, sub-divisional officer of Mohanlalganj range.

“What we are looking for is under what conditions was the animal killed and also what exactly led to that situation when the rescue operation was going on since the past two days,” said Upadhyaya.

The forest department has also formed a two-member committee to study the growing mananimal conflicts in the region.