Leopards of Murree and Galliat

Leopards of Murree and Galliat

Galliat leopards are normally friendly animals, and had not hurt any humans for decades. They are now starving because man has invaded their habitat. Ayaz Ahmed Khan gives an account of how two leopards were killed by wildlife department workers after six
women were attacked and killed by a leopard

The Ayubia National Park and the forests of Galliat in Mansehra division of the NWFP are habitats of precious animal species the threatened common leopard, monkeys, foxes, and cheer and Monal pheasants.

According to a wildlife census, out of 80,000 leopards worldwide, about 18,000 are found in south and south-east Asia. Eighty per cent of these animals are found in Indian forests. The successful wildlife conservation programs in India have helped in saving
the common leopard and increasing its numbers.

In the Galliat forests, which include 8,000 acres of the Ayub National Park, there are only 30 leopards. Two were recently killed, after six local women were reportedly killed by a leopard.

Post-mortem and laboratory tests of the suspected leopards, one 12 years old and the other a two-year-old cub, failed to establish that they were the animals involved in the killings. The cub was unnecessarily killed by wildlife rangers, with the help of a
sharpshooter from Lahore.

Due to the killings, NWFP Wildlife Department has made a proposal for making hunting of leopards legal. This will wipe out the few existing leopards in the Galliat and Ayubia forests. National awareness is required to save the endangered animal. The NWFP government
should reject the proposal in the interest of the animals.

The killing of the six women led to protests by infuriated villagers who blame the NWFP Wildlife Department for releasing leopards in the adjoining forests and not making feeding arrangements nor taking steps to protect womenfolk who go into the forests to
cut wood and collect grass. The officials deny these allegations.

Leopards prey on the rhesus monkeys, but in summer the monkeys go down to the villages and the roads, where they are fed by tourists and restaurant owners. Hungry leopards sometimes enter villages in search of food. The starved leopards then kill goats, poultry
and cattle. Why some leopards have become man-eaters is a question that needs to be answered.

On June 30, a woman and her daughter-in-law were busy cutting grass in the Thandiani forest, when a leopard attacked the woman from the rear and killed her. Her crouching position may have made her look like a sitting monkey. Terrified, the daughter-in-law
ran but the leopard chased her, caught her by the leg and killed her, too. The villagers were shocked and angry, believing the rumor that the leopard had been released by the wildlife department.

Sensing the anger of the locals, the department officials avoided visiting the village for three days after the incident. The next incident took place on Thursday, July 2, when a leopard attacked and carried away a dog in Sialkot village near Thandiani.

The attack on a 12-year-old girl took place near Pirangali village. A mother and her daughter were returning with bundles of wood on their heads from the nearby forest. The leopard attacked and killed the girl, who was walking at some distance behind her mother.

Realizing that the girl was not with her, the mother went back and found her child dead and badly mauled. The police informed NWFP Wildlife Department officials, who delayed their visit to the village for fear of retribution.

On Monday July 4, a leopard killed a woman who was busy collecting pine needles from the dry bed of a stream near village Maulia, which is four kilometers from Bakot police station. The next day, July 5, another woman was killed by a leopard near Sri Kot village
adjacent to the Bakot police station.

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Posted by Naveed A Bari on Mar 3 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry