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Hyderabadi shooter guns down Maharashtra rogue leopard
In a daredevil act, Hyderabad-based sharp shooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, shot a rogue leopard dead in Maharashtra village on Saturday night. A Forest Department official on Sunday said the leopard had killed seven persons, including children and a woman, in the last one month.
Hyderabad: In a daredevil act, Hyderabad-based sharp shooter Nawab Shafath Ali Khan, shot a rogue leopard dead in Maharashtra village on Saturday night. A Forest Department official on Sunday said the leopard had killed seven persons, including children and a woman, in the last one month.
The big cat was gunned down by the shooter near Varkhede village under Chalisgaon taluka of Jalgaon district late Saturday night, Chief Range Forest Officer Rama Rao said Sunday. He said the State Forest Department roped in three shooters from New Delhi and Hyderabad to locate and kill the wild animal.
The department also kept 10 cages in and around Varkhede village to trap the leopard, he said. The wild cat was spotted at around 11.30 pm near the village and one of the shooters, Nawab Malik from Hyderabad, opened fire, killing the leopard on spot, Rao said. According to the Forest Department officials, the leopard had killed seven persons, including children and a woman, in and around Varkhede, which borders Nashik district, in the last one month.
Its last victim was a six-year-old boy, Kunal Prakash Ahire, who was dragged out of his home by the wild cat and killed on December 7, they said. After the spate of killings, the department ordered shooting of the wild animal, the officials said.
It may be recalled here that move to rope in Nawab has upset wildlife experts and activists alike. The development, had not gone down well with wildlife experts. While many expressed fear that Khan might end up killing the leopard instead of catching it alive, what has shocked most of them was the fact that the State Forest Department chose to hire a man with dubious history.
According to reports, the Karnataka Police had arrested Khan in 1991-92 for supplying weapons to Maoists, who operated along the Andhra Pradesh- Odisha border. However, earlier this week, biologist and leopard expert Vidya Athreya was quoted by a local newspaper as saying, “The State should have asked commandos or police shooter to carry out the task instead of employing a hunter.”
