A leopard tranquilised by the veterinary specialists of Kerala Forest Department on Tuesday evening was found dead within hours in Kannur district. The leopard which allegedly trespassed into a farm land in rural Kannur got entangled in the steel fence and fell unconscious within minutes. The veterinary team that reached the spot took a shot with their tranquiliser gun so that the big cat would not get up from its slumber. The tranquilised leopard was being transported to the public garden in Thrissur when the accompanying forest staff found that the leopard was dead.
This is the fourth such wild animal that got killed in the last two months after getting shot by the tranquilisers. Last two months saw a tiger and two leopards succumbing after getting tranquilised by the forest teams.
Wildlife activists like VK Venkatachalam, chairman, Heritage Animal Task Force, had questioned the competency and efficacy of the veterinary specialists as well as the tranquilisers employed in the missions. “We fear that outdated tranquilisers are being
used in the operations and thus have put the life of the animals in danger,” said Venkatachalam.
Meanwhile, a district wide alert has been issued in Wayanad following the sighting of another leopard on Wednesday morning.
Lissy Joseph, a homemaker was on her way to church to attend the morning mass when a leopard drove her away from the direction of the church.
The local CPI(M) leaders blamed the leopard for attack on minority community members and by the time the legislative Assembly met for the day at Thiruvananthapuram, forest minister AK Saseendran introduced a legislation in the House declaring that all wild animals entering human settlements would be annihilated without warning.
Though the Forest Department has been trying to shoot down a wild elephant which had killed a 47-year old man in his house, the pachyderm has been leading the foresters in wrong directions. A special task force constituted for the purpose missed the elephants three to four times as it took cover in the deep forest in the district. The minister said in the House that wild elephants from Karnataka, with which Wayanad has a common border, were sneaking into the district to rob food and water. Saseendran, (who has not seen a forest according to K Sudhakaran , KPCC president) said all wild animals trespassing into the settlements would be killed without any warning.