Locals Protest As 3 Children Killed In Few Days; Admin Orders Eliminating Wild Beast
Zaffer Iqbal
Srinagar, Jun 14 (GNS): After two incidents in the last few days involving killing of two children, a 12-year-old girl has now fallen prey to a predator at Batangi Boniyar in Baramulla district.
Reports reaching GNS said that a girl identified as Rutba Manzoor daughter of Manzoor Ahmad Bhat was pounced upon by a wild animal and taken away to nearby forests this morning. Alerted by the cries, the family and locals tried to chase the animal, possibly a leopard, however the beast disappeared in the dense forests with the child.
After strenuous efforts, the child was found dead by the locals.
Notably, two minor boys fell prey to wild animal(s) in two incidents in last few days at Cholan Kalsi Ghati and Trikanjan Boniyar areas respectively. Meanwhile inhabitants of Boniyar blocked Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road for several hours after the girl was mauled to death by the wild beast.
Reports said that the family of the victim accompanied by locals kept the corpse on the highway outside Tehsil headquarters for several hours. The protestors shouted slogans against the Wildlife Department and civil administration for their alleged failure to contain the incidents in the area. “The authorities are not taking any strong steps to tackle the issue which unfortunately has led to back-to-back killings”, a protestor said.
A Wildlife Department official said that they have already sent several parties to the area to trace the animal. “It happens that such beasts frequently change locations making it relatively difficult for us to catch them”, he said adding nonetheless we are upping our efforts to catch or if required kill the beast in the shortest possible time.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Baramulla, Dr Syed Sehrish Asgar this afternoon directed the concerned authorities to capture or eliminate the man eater leopard by mobilizing all the available resource.
She issued these directions during a meeting convened in her office chamber with the concerned stakeholders in order to discuss the immediate and necessary action plan to hunt the man eater leopard for averting further any kind of untoward incident.(GNS)
