In the most horrifying act ever to threaten wildlife conservation, a leopard was burnt alive on 23rd march. I request all active NGO's to initiate campaigns advocating the enforcement of 'shoot at sight' for every wildlife criminal, no matter how poor or how rich, minister, poacher or villager. Wildlife is running out of time and we cannot afford to adopt a casual approach to such heinous acts. Only measures as extreme as 'shooting at sight' will ensure a safer future for our wildlife. It has worked in Kaziranga, it will work everywhere else if applied.
The following text and image about this incident are as reported by the WPSI-
India's shame - leopard burnt to death
On Wednesday, 23 March 2011, a leopard mauled three people from Dhamdhar village in Adnala Range of Kalagarh Forest Division, Corbett Tiger Reserve in the state of Uttarakhand. The leopard took shelter and was trapped inside a cattle shed in the village. The Forest Department team arrived and managed to tranquilise the leopard, and put it inside a cage. But the moment they started to transport the cage to the nearest range office at Rathuwadhab, they were surrounded by a mob of about 400 angry villagers who seized the cage and started attacking the caged leopard using iron rods, sickles and stones. The mob then doused the caged leopard with kerosene and burnt it alive in the presence of helpless forest and police officials. A postmortem revealed that the leopard was not a man-eater. Ten people, including two women, have been booked for the crime under the the IPC and WPA, of which two people from Dhamdhar village were arrested on 25 March.
