Kerala tribal man kills leopard in self-defence

The Kerala forest officials said that the tribal man will not be booked since he killed the leopard in self-defence after being attacked by the animal

A tribal man killed a fully-grown leopard with a machete after it attacked him in Kerala’s Idukki district on Saturday, forest officials said. They said the man will not be booked since he killed the leopard in self-defence after being attacked by the animal.

The leopard attacked the Kerala tribal man while he was on his way to his brother’s house for some work in the early hours on Saturday. (Representative Image)

Officials said K Gopalan (26), a native of the Chinganamkudi tribal colony in Mankulam, was attacked by the leopard while he was walking towards his brother’s house for some work in the early hours. After it pounced and bit him, he slashed the animal with a machete that he was carrying, they said.Though he was injured, he hit the animal hard and cried for help, they added.

“It was least expected. It jumped on me suddenly from a tree and before I could react it bit me on my thigh. Wounded, I slashed with full force and it gradually loosened its grip,” said Gopalan, undergoing treatment in a government hospital in Idukki. He said he was alive because he did not lose his composure and fought back. Forest officials said no case will be foisted on him since he did it in self-defence. Otherwise, it will invite seven-year jail term and fine as leopard is listed in Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. According to the forest department, nine leopard attacks were reported from the state this year.

Local people said the injured animal was stalking the area for quite some time and it had killed many domestic animals in the last two months. Though the forest department set up a cage to trap it, it managed to escape. Two weeks ago, it got trapped in a plastic net covering a chicken coop, but it managed to flee before forest officials reached the site.