A hungry snow leopard injured four people in the upper areas of Banihal in the Indian-held Kashmir, before ending up in the captivity of wildlife department officials and dying at a hospital later.
According to details, the snow leopard stalked down the nearby mountains in search of food and attacked four people, including three brothers, in the Wanpora village of Ramban district. However, the human-animal conflict soon alerted the nearby villagers who rushed to the spot and thrashed the unfortunate creature before handing it over to wildlife department officials.
Alpine predators, particularly the endangered snow leopards, are often drawn towards human settlements in winters when several feet of snow reduces their odds of a successful hunt in the wild.
The injured, identified as Ghulam Mohammad, 65, Mohammad Yousaf, 50, Mohammad Aslam, 40, and Riyees Ahmed, 30, were shifted to a hospital. After a few hours, the leopard died in a local veterinary hospital, wildlife department officials said. A handout issued by the Banihal Police also confirmed the incident.
It is very, very unusual for a SNOW leopard to attack humans. I suspect that it would have been a COMMON leopard and not a SNOW leopard.
It is very doubtful that it was the snow leopard. And there are photos confirming this fact, video or expert opinions what exactly the snow leopard, instead of ordinary leopard has attacked humans? My friend Oleg Beljalov from Almaty in the eighties the last century in Turkmenia has undergone to attack of a leopard. Oleg has received serious wounds from a leopard. But in Central Asia (republics of the former USSR) and in Kazakhstan for all history it is not fixed any attack of a snow leopard on humans.
Oleg Loginov, Director of the Snow Leopard Fund (Kazakhstan)
Comments are closed.