According to forest officials, it was around 6.30pm that a forest patrolling team shot the suspected male leopard at Kalambad village.
The leopard that had been giving people from several villages of Murbad taluka sleepless nights after killing two people in three days was shot dead on Wednesday evening. The big cat had been evading the forest department for the last six days.
According to forest officials, it was around 6.30pm that a forest patrolling team shot the suspected male leopard at Kalambad village. "The leopard had picked up a dog in the morning from the village. After we got the input, our staff patrolling the area shot the animal," said a senior forest official.
Chief Conservator for Forest, territorial wing, KP Singh confirmed the incident and said, "We tried our best to ensure that he not be shot, we made all attempts to trap and tranquilise him, but the situation on the ground had changed completely as two people had died and around five cows and five goats had been killed by the animal in a week." Singh added that it was the two human deaths that had left the forest department with no option but to seek permission for shooting the leopard.
Forest department staff from Tokawade range along with staff of Sanjay Gandhi National Park leopard rescue team and senior officials from Thane territorial wing had been patrolling several kilometres daily to trap the leopard.
"It's an extremely sad feeling that the life of a wild leopard had to end like this... a lot of attempts were made to avoid putting a bullet in him," said a forest official.
The leopard had claimed its first victim on Friday evening, when it attacked and killed 54-year-old Mirabai Vare from Singapur village near the paddy fields. Even as the forest department set up five cages to trap it a day later, it killed Barku Bhoir (52), who was grazing cattle in the Palu-Sonavale dam area, barely 5km from where the leopard had killed Vare. With angry villagers attacking forest officials, the department then immediately sought permission to shoot the animal.
A wildlife activist, however, raised a worry and said, "We hope the forest department has shot the right leopard as there have been instances wherein the wrong animal has been shot. It will be known soon anyway, if the random attacks stop immediately."
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