Forest guards were among those injured by the leopard and they were taken to the Sohna civil hospital. Residents of Mandawar, located at the foothills of Aravallis, spotted the 2.5-year-old leopard around 8 am after it was found crouching under a cot.
A tense drama unfolded for nearly three hours on Thursday morning in Mandawar village, 30 km from Gurgaon, as a leopard, which had strayed into the village and injured nine people, was clubbed to death by a mob of hundreds.
Forest guards were among those injured by the leopard and they were taken to the Sohna civil hospital. Residents of Mandawar, located at the foothills of Aravallis, spotted the 2.5-year-old leopard around 8 am after it was found crouching under a cot.
While some immediately locked themselves up in their homes, several others pursued the wild cat with sticks, rods and axes. The villagers were quick to make a distress call to the Gurgaon Forest Department, and a team of nearly 10 was dispatched to the spot to tranquillize and capture the leopard.
"The leopard did not attack anyone immediately. First it moved around the village, moving away from residents. It entered a cattle shed and later hid beside a nearby farmhouse. As the villagers closed in, it entered a nullah. By this time, the mob had grown in numbers and the leopard dashed towards them. Even our staff was beaten up by the villagers," said MD Sinha, Conservator of Forests, Gurgaon circle.
The leopard clawed at people and bit a few as it ran and climbed houses in the village. Soon, residents of neighbouring areas too joined and the Forest Department could not control the large mob. According to sources, as the leopard was about to attack one villager, the mob struck it on its head with axes and large sticks. It was overpowered and the spotted cat died on the spot.
"Since the mob was out of control, there was no clear line of sight to aim the tranquillizer at the leopard. We also had difficulty retrieving the leopard's body as villagers surrounded it," added a forest official at the spot. The leopard's body was sent for a post-mortem to the Sultanpur National Park and it was cremated soon after. The Forest Department has registered a case against unknown persons for killing the leopard, which is listed as a Schedule I endangered species under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Encroachment of forest land and increasing human habitation near the Bandhwari-Mangar Bani forest of Aravallis are posing a threat to leopards, forest officials said. "While human life is certainly more important, we also need to curb the pressure on this dense and contiguous forest stretch," added Sinha. The Bandhwari to Damdama forest, including Mangar Bani, is spread across more than 5,000 hectares on a 30-km stretch. While this stretch is home to an estimated 30 leopards, the Gurgaon forest circle confirmed through camera trap images the presence of five leopards in Gurgaon.
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