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Forest department rescues leopard trapped in farmer’s snare in Kerala
Many farmers still lay snares to trap boars and other animals that raid the fields to eat the crops.
Amid the outrage over the brutal killing of a pregnant elephant in Palakkad in Kerala late last month, a leopard was trapped in a snare laid by a farmer in Wayanad on Sunday, forest department officials said.
The farmer immediately alerted forest officials after the big cat was trapped. And unlike the elephant, the leopard survived, but not without some drama.
When forest department personnel tried to tranquilize the animal it escaped to the nearby forest. But they tracked it and tranquilized it after a three-hour chase.
“It will now be relocated in the deep forests,” an official said.
The forest department has registered a case against farmer P. Eliyas for laying an illegal trap. Officials said that he claimed to have laid the trap to scare wild boars which often raided his crops.
Eliyas was later arrested.
The recent killing of an elephant by using cracker-filled coconut had triggered a countrywide outrage. One person was arrested for the elephant’s killing.
The latest incident shows many farmers still lay snares to trap boars and other animals that raid the fields to eat the crops.
