Rajasthan: Kuno forest team tracking cheetah KGP-3 attacked by villagers after it kills buffalo calf

A Kuno National Park forester alleged that villagers assaulted and tried to strangle him while his team tracked cheetah KGP-3 in Rajasthan’s Karauli district.

A forest team from Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park, deployed to track the movements of cheetah KGP-3 after it strayed into Rajasthan’s Karauli district, was allegedly assaulted by a group of villagers following the animal’s killing of a buffalo calf, police said on Friday.

The Kuno forest team was tracking cheetah KGP-3 in Karauli after it killed a buffalo calf. A forester alleged that villagers assaulted the team and pelted stones.

A forester sustained injuries and sought police protection for the team, which is monitoring the cheetah in the Mandrayal area.

Alok Prajapati (34), a forester with Kuno National Park, lodged a complaint on Tuesday against five to six unidentified villagers for allegedly assaulting members of the forest team.

In his complaint, Prajapati said that the cheetah’s movement had been traced to the area under Chandelipura gram panchayat of Mandrayal police station limits, where the animal had killed a buffalo calf. Around five to six villagers allegedly approached the team and began abusing its members. They assaulted Prajapati and threatened to kill him, according to the complaint.

Prajapati also sought police security for the forest team deployed for night patrolling.

Prajapati told HT that an elderly man approached the team while it was patrolling the area to track the cheetah’s movements and started abusing them. “We tried to convince him and assured him that compensation would be provided for the death of the buffalo calf. Later, another man arrived and called other villagers. The attackers tried to strangle me and started pelting stones,” he alleged.

An investigation is underway to identify the accused and initiate legal action, he said.