Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Mar 17: In a shocking incident, two young leopardesses got strangled after being caught by an illegal snare in village Balandh of Tehsil Ramnagar, here late last night.
FIR under relevant sections of Wildlife Protection Act,1972 has been lodged in this connection for necessary action against the culprits, who had laid the snare for capturing wild animals.
Reports said that on the intervening night of March 16- 17, specific information regarding poaching of two leopardesses using improvised snares of clutch wires in village Balandh of Ramnagar Tehsil was received by Department of Wildlife Protection, Udhampur.
Acting swiftly, a team led by Wildlife Warden Jammu Vijay Kumar and Range Officer Wildlife Range Udhampur Rakesh Sharma rushed to the spot after conveying the matter to the District authorities.
On reaching the spot, the authorities found one female leopard brutally killed using locally improvised clutch wires and another one severely injured by getting entangled in a snare within an agricultural field of one Deewan Chand, son of Pala Ram of village Balandh.
The Wildlife team, after putting strenuous efforts, succeeded in freeing the injured wild beast and shifted it for treatment. However, the badly injured leopardess succumbed enroute thereby taking the toll of illegal killing to two numbers.
The carcasses of both the scheduled 1 wild beasts were taken into possession by the Department of Wildlife Protection and an FIR was lodged against unknown person (s) in Ramnagar Police Station under relevant sections of Wildlife Protection Act,1972, besides initiating inquest proceedings in the heinous Wildlife crime.
As per the Wildlife Department, final disposal of both the carcasses will be carried out as per extant statutory guidelines by way of complete incineration.
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