Shopian: A rescue effort to catch a fully grown leopard left two locals and a wildlife official injured in Shopian Meminder village of Shopian.
The Wildlife officials said that while the attempts by locals to hurt the leopard were foiled after being safely rescued from the spot and released to a officially designated wildlife habitat, it managed to cause injuries to three persons only because of it being distressed by locals
Officials from the wildlife department told Kashmir Reader that they received information about spotting a leopard in the village and soon a team was sent to the area ,however, locals from the village and other areas hindered the rescuing of the wild animal.
They said that locals even pelted stones on the tranqualised animal and department vehicle. The animal according to them changed many locations throughout the day.
Gulzar Ahmed Khan, a wildlife official said that it was a big leopard which was caught by them. “Since I joined the department, it was the first such huge leopard we managed to catch.
Hundreds of locals from the area were seen shouting and chasing the animal despite strict advisory from the department, on videos which were circulated on social media.
Mudasir Ahmad, in-charge wildlife control room Shopian told Kashmir Reader that ‘mob’ created many problems in the rescue operation and it was the reason that one of our employees and two civilians were injured by the leopard. “They starting shouting and throw stones which is an absolute stupid thing to do that only,” he said.
Mudasir added that their injured employee and one civilian have been shifted to Srinagar for advanced treatments since both of them have received serious injuries but are stable.” The leopard was later safely tranquilised and released to one of the Wildlife habitats,” he added.

Raashid Hassan