Indians For Guns

What's happening in India?? Are people becoming more violent than the wild animals.... it's too shocking to read. poor animal

Angry villagers burn alive captured leopard

A mob of about 300-400 villagers poured petrol on a caged leopard and burnt it alive on the outskirts of the Corbett National Park here, even as wildlife wardens and some policemen stood by helplessly, an official said.

The animal was captured alive in Dhandhar village, on the outskirts of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

According to Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Conservator S.K. Chandola: "Irate villagers (Wednesday evening) forcibly took custody of the leopard that was captured and put in a cage and was being taken away by department officials."

He said, "The villagers doused the leopard with petrol and threw a lit matchstick inside the cage, sending the animal up in flames."

Chandola said, "Even though there were about 35 wildlife officials and four policemen, they were overpowered by a mob of 300-400 people who would not let the officials go anywhere close to the burning animal that kept wailing and roaring inside the cage until he met his end."

Contrary to some reports, which said the animal had killed a few people over the past few days, Chandola clarified: "The leopard had apparently strayed from the periphery of Corbett reserve area and was reported to have attacked and wounded three people on Wednesday."

Wildlife enthusiasts blamed wildlife officials for not ensuring protection to the leopard which is listed among the endangered species and its killing entails imprisonment up to seven years.

While an FIR had been registered against an unnamed mob, no one has been arrested so far.

Now who is the animal here ?

M.

News like this make my blood boil and my knees go weak with the images of the suffering endured by the poor beast racing through the mind . I saw the clip of a similar incident wherein a bear was torched by villagers in Kashmir.I guess mob mentality takes over and it's becomes a vent for all their pent up anger. I think, if people were caught in the same situation,they would do the same thing to them. Stone them, beat them up to death,burn them etc.Rather than blaming those villagers, I would expect the officials to manage the situation better.But, that would be asking too much in some cases.


Best-
Vikram

dear s&W this is not a new news.

I have compiled a list of leopard killings; refer to my post.

These policemen, forest officials were unarmed? If not, what prevented them from opening fire?? Three or four rounds, on three or four targets, would have settled the hash of the 300-400 strong mob once and for all. And sent a message. I think legally they are empowered to use force?

Poor leopard, can you ever forgive our species?

Its a ghastly act and should be punished

Its heinous crime what the villagers have done!!!
they have done!!!!!
I do really feel very sad for this but,In my NGO owned by my aunt(paternal)we do Impart training on this topics to the Inhabiter of simlipal tiger reserve. In north Orissa previously it was developed by Maharaj Sri Ram Chandra Bhaj Deo (philosopher thinker)
latter on it is being run by the govt.

you know what the reality is?
no one will get arrested, nothing will happen.
you cant chargesheet a mob and you cant prosecute one.
its a sad state of affairs, but thats what it is.
the apathy of the forest officials, the ignorance of the people, the incompetence of the government(dont we all love blaming the government), it just doesnt stop.

you must be very proud of your countrymen, now i understand perfectly why hunting/gun ownership is not allowed, imagine if those people were actually armed

peterdk wrote:you must be very proud of your countrymen

Peter, that was uncalled for.

Now Imagine your family livelyhood and entire lifesavings invested in that one single milking cow which the leopard just had for dinner...

If wildlife conservation went as planned in India, (Without measures taken to control and contain wildlife/humans within carefully demarcated zones,) this news is just a glimpse of what the future holds for us. Man animal conflicts! I pity the lepoard just as much as I pity the villagers who have been taught to hate the cats because wildlife conservation in India is unrealistically restricted/focussed only on the wellbeing of the wildanimals.

Jonah

I do not blame wild animals in this "conflict". Instead the human population is exploding rapidly without any control in India and the forested land(habitat of wild animals) is rapidly shrinking every day due to the encroachment by exploding human population. What will wild animals do in this situation? No politician is interested to check the growth of human population.

I can feel the villagers' rage as here in my place tigers often eat cattle. As almost all of us know Indian people are very emotional when it comes to their cattle, specially the cows. Hindus treat them as god in most part of India. I think this is why they got pissed off at it but its still unfair what they did to the leopard. Anyways the tigers are not to be blamed either. They must do anything to survive as the jungle are shrinking now-a-days due to over population
R.I.P leopard

peterdk wrote:you must be very proud of your countrymen, now i understand perfectly why hunting/gun ownership is not allowed, imagine if those people were actually armed

Yes, i am proud of being Indian and am very proud of my countrymen..not proud regarding this specific bunch of murdering villagers..but having said that,i did not lose a livelyhood,nor did my family get attacked by this beast..It is easy for us to sit before our laptops and say,this is good and this is bad,but the pain those villagers would have felt,or the losses they would have incurred.,we did not..

But,we as humans are the only species who are the smartest in this creation , and we are the ONLY species who are destroying the planet and nature that allows us to exist..Rest all species takes what it needs,but does not break the planet..

And if those villagers would have been armed,the leopard would have, at the very least died a swift and a less pain full death..

It is indeed sad and unfortunate. syed833 & jonahpach have poignantly put across an emotionally valid point. One would have to go through the trauma of leopard attacks to get down to that level of butchery. Thankfully none of us had to undergo that litmus test.
BTW, was this event recorded or caught on film ? If not, consider this scenario -

A group of villagers (read poachers) kill the leopard in connivance with some forest officials. The dead leopard is fleeced, de-clawed, bones removed for Chinese medicines etc. and the remaining carcass is put inside a cage, doused with petrol/ kerosene and set ablaze to cleanse all the clues of the crime. The "officers" dutifully report a *mob* that can not be tracked, traced or pointed to so that the case would fizzle out. The money from smugglers from across the border is shared and all go home happy - except a few folks like us, on IFG, who are horrified and beat away at their keyboards.

Now, I am not saying that this is what really happened - but then was any autopsy of the leopard remains carried out to determine if he really was burnt while alive or that he really had devoured those goats and cows? Or may be "nothing" was left to perform an autopsy or could be that remote place is not well-equipped to do anything of that sort ? If such "reasons" are put, then as the English Bard said, "Something stinks in Hamlet's Denmark."

Of course, a film recording of the event would be a great help - one, to determine the event actually took place and two, to punish the culprits - guys burning the leopard, guys preventing forest officials from doing their duty etc. etc. Surely these days of cell phones priced at INR 3K having cameras there's gotta be some recording, right ? Have similar incidents happened before in that area ? If so, need I quote Shakespeare ?

Having heard a few "leopard stories" in Ratnagiri district (my maternal native place) and the fact that the administration gives "some relief" to victims who lose goats/ cattle to leopards, but never having seen so much as even a pug mark in so many of my wandering in the leopard forests, I have grown a skeptic. Forgive me for my transgressions.

I however, agree whole-heartedly with guys who have pointed out that human-beast conflicts are set for grander scale unless corrective measures are taken to safeguard all the genus of animal kingdom and clear-cut demarcation of the territories of the "Wild" and the "Civilized". We need greater awareness and participation in ecological maintenance by political and public entities alike.