PESHAWAR: Residents of Neelan valley in Abbottabad killed a wild leopard on Wednesday that had entered the village and attacked goats and dogs in the area.
According to the details, a villager shot down the leopard that was entered in the residential area from the forest in search of food which had frightened the locals.
After the incident, the wildlife workers have taken the leopard’s body into custody and sent it to Peshawar for post-mortem.
He said that his team was investigating as to how the animal entered the locality.
Muhammad Awais, a researcher in the year 2016 has written in his article “Impact of climatic factors on human-common leopard conflict in the Galiat Forest Division” that human-leopard conflict is a challenge for the people living near leopard habitat, and for the agencies charged with the conservation of the species.
He further expressed that the relevant departments, conservationists, and wildlife managers have a variety of tools to lessen the conflict, however, in the Galyat forests of Abbottabad, they seem to have been unsuccessful so far which is a significant threat to the already threatened population of common leopards throughout Pakistan.
Muhammad Awais also mentioned that the expansion of human settlements in Galyat is constricting the natural migration corridors of leopards.
According to another report published in 2003, experts are of the view that leopards are the most highly adaptable of all big cats and can vary their diet accordingly. In areas where natural prey has been depleted, it is not uncommon for leopards to prey on humans and livestock.
