In its eagerness to eliminate a man-eater leopard, the Himachal Pradesh Forest officials appear to have killed the country’s ‘largest’ wild cat. The measurement of the leopard, killed by the forest officials, was found to be 8.7 feet long, 34 inches height and 70.85 kg in weight.

The unique features of the leopard came to be known when the forest department took its measurements as a routine exercise of the department. Tarun Kapoor, Principal Secretary, Forest and Environment, believed that the leopard gunned down in Bilaspur, may be the longest found in Indian forests.

The leopard had been gunned down by local hunters and forest officials at Patta village of Bilaspur, after it turned cannibal for some time. A number of people were attacked by the leopard. It had also killed a 46-year-old man in Bharari area of Bilaspur district.

The state wildlife authority had recently deployed a team of its officers along with local hunters to give relief to the villagers due to the panic created by the man-eater. Though the killing of the big wild cat has provided relief to the local residents but the measurements known after its killing has brought it into the category of in-deliberate mistake. 

Kapoor said that the corpse of the killed animal had been preserved so that experts can verify the physical measurements of the leopard. The Wildlife Institute of India has been contacted to get more details about the physical measurements, he added.

As per the records available with government agencies in the state, the longest leopard until now has been measured 8 feet and 2 inches from head to tail, but the leopard killed in Bilaspur has length of 8.7 inches from head to tail.

Generally the average Indian leopard is normally found around 7.8 feet long, though a leopard of 8.2 feet length was earlier found in the State.

Although the number of leopards has improved in Himachal Pradesh after hunting was banned in the State but the hill state does not figure among the states with largest population of this wild beast. Madhya Pradesh with 1817 leopards and Karnataka with 1129 leopards are the leading Indian states in terms of population of the leopards.

The Himachal Pradesh Forest department is now planning to get the hunted leopard registered in Guinness Book, if it length is proved to be the longest by the experts.