Bandipora, Oct 13: Residents of several villages in north Kashmir’s Sumbal Sonawari division are living in perpetual fear of a leopard roaming free for over a month.
The leopard killed a seven-year-old boy in Nesbal village at the end of August and has now struck a poor villager in Hajin’s Khumina, Baharabbad, killing nine sheep in the dead of night.
The residents of Hajin, Naidkhai, Nesbal and several other villages have been living in fear of leopard attacks since the August tragedy and the latest incident has heightened it.
Many villagers and men from wildlife spotted the leopard constantly and quickly turned to social media or other means to spread information and warn others to remain alert.
The messages were also flashed in Sonawari Citizen Counsel, a WhatsApp group of Nazir Ahmad, a traders’ president in Sonawari.
“Leopard has been spotted in Arampora Sumbal, people are advised to remain cautious,” Ahmad posted in the group last night along with pictures, shortly before the leopard killed sheep in a nearby village.
Before that, a message circulated, “Leopard continuously roaming between the area of Wagipora and Sumbal, so everyone is informed and advised to remain cautious.”
On Friday, Ghulam Nabi Ganie, a sheep farmer, got a shock when he saw dead sheep scattered on the ground.
“His house is close to the orchard. The leopard probably smelled flesh and jumped over the wall and plundered the sheep during the night,” Zahoor Ahmad Ganie, his brother and neighbour, said.
“There were 70 sheep and the leopard attacked 11. Two were injured and nine got killed on the spot,” he said.
Ganie said they want the wildlife department to take quick action and cage the leopard. He fumed over their ‘inefficiency’, saying they had not done anything even when a child was killed in a nearby village of Nesbal.
“Had it been a human instead of an animal, the tragedy would have doubled. Our hands were tied and we couldn’t do anything, but the department too was sitting unconcerned,” he said.