Two female leopards have been brutally killed by poachers with improvised clutch wire traps in the Udhampur district of Jammu. The police have initiated action after registering an FIR under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
A Wildlife Department officer said on the midnight of Sunday that the wild cats were brutally trapped in clutch wires inflicting grievous injuries on them and resulting in their eventual death.
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Acting swiftly on specific information about the poaching incident in the Balandh village of Udhampur, Wildlife Warden of Jammu Vijay Kumar and Range Officer Udhampur Rakesh Sharma rushed to the spot and found a female leopard brutally killed using locally improvised clutch wire snare. Another leopardess was critically injured after getting entangled in the snare in the agriculture field of one, Dewan Chand.
The wildlife team succeeded in freeing the injured female leopard with lots of strenuous efforts but could not save her life as she died while being taken for treatment, the official said.
The carcasses of the two schedule-1 leopards have been taken into possession by the Department of Wildlife Protection and an FIR lodged against the unknown person (s) in Ramnagar Police Station under the relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act,1972, besides initiating inquest proceedings in the heinous Wildlife crime.
Final disposal of both carcasses shall be carried out as per extant statutory guidelines by way of complete incineration, officials added.
