Gujarat mob demands death for trapped ‘man-eater’ leopard, booked

Vadodara, November 3

A mob in Gujarat’s Amreli district has been booked for rioting for demanding that a suspected man-eater leopard be put down, police said on Sunday.

The leopard had killed two people near Sudavad village in Bagsara tehsil recently, after which the forest department set up 10 cages in the vicinity and managed to trap it on October 31.

While the leopard was being taken away by forest department officials to a rescue centre as per wildlife protocol, a crowd of over 400 people assembled and obstructed their work, an official said.

“The crowd demanded that the leopard be shot. They even climbed on the cage in which it was kept. We had to resort to mild cane charge to disperse them. It took us six hours to get the crowd to give way,” Amreli Superintendent of Police Nirlipt Ray said.

“It is suspected that the leopard has turned man-eater but that doesn’t give us the right to shoot it dead,” the SP added.

Following a complaint by Bagsara Range Forest Officer Bharat Chandu over the crowd disturbance, police lodged a case of rioting against the mob, an official said.

“Six persons who led the mob and caused trouble were identified and three of them were arrested on Sunday and released on bail,” he said. — PTI