Two arrested for laying snare that killed leopard

Two persons arrested for trapping & killing leopard in Udhagamandalam, conservationists critical of response time.

Two persons, who had fixed a snare to capture wild game and inadvertently trapped a leopard which subsequently died were arrested and remanded to judicial custody by the forest department.

The two accused were identified as C. Prashanthkumar, 26 and S. Maari, 50, from Theetukkal in Udhagamandalam. The two were picked up by a team of forest department staff following an investigation launched into the laying of a snare bordering an estate in the area.

On December 21, a leopardess which was entering the field got trapped in the snare, with forest officials taking many hours to free the animal, leading to its eventual death after it was released.

Conservationists have been critical of the response time of the forest department to such incidents, and also about the lack of action against poachers involved in a number of poaching and hunting incidents that have taken place across the Nilgiris forest division, with the prime suspects in the hunting of an Indian gaur in Kattery, and the poaching of a leopard for its paws still remaining untraced.

Forest officials said that Prasanthkumar and Maari had precedents of other instances of hunting wild game and were picked up for questioning. They are said to have confessed to setting up the snare to trap wild game that were entering the field and stated that they accidentally trapped the leopard. The two were produced before a judge in Udhagamandalam and remanded to judicial custody.