CHITRAL: Panic gripped the residents of Parkusap Mastuj village when three goats were killed by snow leopards in the locality on Saturday evening.

The snow leopard made its appearance in the area after three years by attacking a herd of goats. The attack forced the villagers to guard their homes throughout the night. 

Darwesh Khan, a resident of the village, told Dawn by telephone that his son was herding the goats from the pasture to the village when all of a sudden two snow leopards attacked the goats.

He said that hearing the screams of the boy, the villagers rushed to the spot and saw the beasts devouring the flesh. They came back to their homes with the surviving goats as the dusk enveloped the area, he added.

Mr Khan said that the appearance of the couple of leopards filled the villagers with fear and horror and they confined themselves to their homes and kept guarding their homes to avert possible attack by the wild animals on the human settlement.

The villager said that, however, no howling sounds of the leopards were heard during the night.

Regarding the colours and size of the animals, he said that one of them was large sized and white in colour with black spots on the body while the other was medium in size and brown in colour with red spots on the body.

“The wild cat has been spotted in the district after three years while it is believed that it has descended to the lower altitude due to snow in the higher altitude,” said Shafiqullah Khan, associated with WWF as field biologist.

He said that the area surrounding Parkusap village was noted as one of the habitats of the wild cat by the organisations monitoring its movement and carrying research on it.

The expert said that the animal had the ability to camouflage and adapt its colours to the environment and the colours noted by the villagers were quite possible.

Syed Fazal Baqi Kakakhel, the divisional forest officer, when contacted, had no information about the incident and said that his staff would submit him written report later on.

He had no idea as what to do to protect the villagers and their livestock from the wild animals except saying that he would send the report of loss to the higher authorities for compensation.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2015