MUZAFFARABAD, May 1: A common leopard was killed by villagers in a suburban area of the AJK capital on Tuesday allegedly after it descended on their settlement in search of food.

As the young hungry leopard tried to hunt a goat in Battal village, some 20 kilometres northwest of here, it was spotted by the villagers and dozens of them started chasing it, witnesses and official sources said.

The panicky as well as exhausted carnivore took refuge in a deserted house but the villagers managed to get hold of it from its tail following which they put some blankets on its head and also tied its feet with ropes. Later the animal was dragged on the ground, which caused its death, they said.

Amiruddin Mughal, one of the journalists who reached on the spot immediately after the leopard’s death, told Dawn that animal’s body bore wounds afflicted by tying and dragging.

AJK Wildlife Department personnel also reached the scene, but after the mediamen.

When contacted, Naeem Iftikhar Dar, an official of the AJK Wildlife Department, said the exact cause of the death could be determined only after the autopsy of the animal.

He said uncertain weather and constant human pressure on forests had badly affected the natural habitat and food sources of wildlife which was why they were descending on residential areas in search of food.

It may be mentioned here that over the past six or so months, around a dozen deaths of leopards, zoologically known as Panthera Pardus, have been reported from different parts of Azad Kashmir.

In early March, the AJK Wildlife Department had convened a meeting of conservation biologists to look into the causes of these deaths and also work out a strategy to create awareness among the local communities regarding enhanced tolerance of leopard.

Although the AJK Wildlife Act provides legal protection to the leopard, placing it in third schedule among animals which cannot be killed, captured or kept in possession, but at the same time it provides for shooting the carnivore in the act of self-defence or protecting livestock outside the demarcated forests.