Assam villagers skin leopard for consumption

JORHAT: It's a reversal of roles in the man-animal conflict. Villagers at Koibartagaon in Assam's Sivasagar district were on Monday caught while preparing to eat an eight-month-old leopard. This is not the first time such an incident has taken place in upper Assam.

Since April, the state, which has some of the country's finest animal sanctuaries, has seen people killing and eating leopards in revenge for their cattle being killed by the animals.

"We went to the village after we were tipped-off that some people have killed a leopard cub but the culprits fled on seeing us," said Jaliluddin Ahmed, forest range officer (Sivasagar). "The killers left behind the animal's half-skinned carcass inside a thick bamboo grove near the village," Ahmed added.

An FIR was lodged and police along with forest officials launched a search operation for the culprits. Ahmed said the guilty would be tried under the Forest and Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and could get upto seven years of jail. He added that people might be eating leopard meat thinking that it would cure them of diseases.