On the morning of Friday, 31 May, villagers in the Sonari area of Assam’s Charaideo district killed and mutilated a leopard, reported NDTV. They gouged its eyes out, chopped off its paws and tail, and hanged it from a pole.
The villagers claimed that the leopard was responsible for critically injuring a man in the area and attacking domestic animals. They accused the forest department of negligence, saying that their complaint about the leopard was ignored, according to NDTV. The rise of man-animal conflict was due to the forest department’s attitude, they added.
An official of the department said that they are investigating the incident and the perpetrators will be brought to justice, according to ANI. He said that by the time they arrived the leopard was already dead.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
In a similar incident, two years ago, a mob killed and ate a leopard after it killed a 60-year-old woman in Assam.
(With inputs from NDTV and ANI)
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