14 DAY TRIAL // This past Tuesday, an Indian leopard was beaten to death and later on hanged by a group of angry villagers living in India's northeastern state of Assam.
By the looks of it, this mob's violent behavior towards the feline was a direct result of the latter's entering a village and attacking three people who were merely minding their own business inside their home.
Furthermore, the leopard allegedly savaged one of his victims' face, leaving him with no choice except seek urgent medical attention. Sources report that the family attacked by this big cat inside their own house were eventually rescued by their neighbors, who were quick in arriving at the scene and who managed to chase the leopard away.
Later on, the feline was tracked down by other members of the village, who did not hesitate to beat it to death and then hang it from a tree.
Conservationists claim that the animal did not deserve to be treated in such a violent manner, seeing how its attacking people can only be viewed as a means to “protest” against humans' habit of setting up communities either smack in the center of its territory, or fairly close to its hunting grounds.
Still, the villagers responsible for killing the animal maintain that they did try to ask for help from officials working with the local forest department, but that these rangers failed to arrive at the scene in due time.
Commenting on this run-in between humans and wildlife, local conservationist S.P. Singh stated that, “Leopards are indeed under severe threat across the state. Increasing conflict between people and wild animals, more particularly leopards, has become a major problem, especially with a section of the people violently retaliating, causing injury and even death to the animals.”
The incident occurred in the village of Choriyakhola Bisiondoi in the Golokganj area and Haren Roy, i.e. the man whose face was savaged by the leopard, now finds himself in a critical condition.