Five held in Kerala for killing leopard and eating its meat

Five villagers from Kerala’s Idukki, who ensnared a six-year-old leopard and feasted on its meat after killing it, were arrested by forest officials on Friday after a tip-off. During the raid, officials recovered cooked leopard meat, uncooked meat, teeth, nails and skin of the killed cat.

Shocked forest officials said it was the first time they came across such an incident. Initially, they thought that the cat might have been trapped accidentally in the snare, put up to net wild boars. But later, the accused told officials they did it deliberately to trap the big cat that strayed into their habitat and often killed their pets and cattle.

“The animal had recently killed a goat owned by Vinod P K, one of the accused and he and his friends laid a snare using auto brake cable, net and other materials. The animal was netted on Wednesday before it was killed by its captors and its meat distributed,” said Mankulam forest range officer V B Udayasooryan. He said the animal weighed around 50 kg. The incident came to light two days later after one of the informers alerted forest officials.

Officials recovered 10 kg of uncooked meat and other remains of the animal from the houses of the accused. They said the accused were planning to sell the skin, teeth and nail of the big cat. “It is a shocking incident. Killing of wild animals do occur but this is the first time we are hearing that its meat was consumed. A special investigation team will be constituted soon,” said another senior forest officer.

Leopard was listed in the schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972) and the accused will get a maximum punishment of seven-year jail and a heavy fine, said the forest official.