Following the death of a leopardess ensnared in a metal wire snare on Sunday, the Dehradun forest division has decided to intensify its routine patrolling especially to check and remove snares.
It will be recalled that a female leopard aged about four years was found dangling in a septic tank from a metal wire snare around its abdomen in the Garhi cantonment area. The big cat was rescued but succumbed to its injury. The post mortem of the leopardess revealed that it had died due to excessive bleeding. Talking to The Pioneer, the Dehradun sub divisional officer Gul Vir Singh said, “The department personnel conduct routine patrolling and we will intensify this patrolling to search and remove any snares placed to trap animals. People generally place metal wire snares to trap wild boars that raid farms. However, at times such wire snares end up entrapping big cats. The department will effectively search for and remove such snares,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that metal wire snares are commonly used not only to poach wildlife but are also placed around agricultural fields to ensnare wild boars that often raid farms. In the past there have been various incidents in the Dehradun region and elsewhere in the State wherein leopards were trapped and injured- at times fatally- by metal wire snares placed near agricultural fields. The chances of leopards getting trapped in metal wire snares placed to trap wild boars are high especially as leopards frequent areas in and near human habitations in search of prey.
Wildlife activists point out that expanding human settlements and resulting increase in human-wildlife conflict has fueled the use of metal wire snares by villagers to protect their farms from raiding wild boars. The authorities have so far failed to effectively clamp down on this practice, they add.