Seven sheep were killed in a leopard attack in the Dargam area of Pattan in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
Locals told The Kashmiriyat that during the night hours, a leopard barged into the shed of a local resident Ghulam Mohammed Wani and mauled eight sheep to death.
“It is tragic that due to the negligence of the wild life Department, the years of hard work of a poor man Ghulam Mohammed Wani went in vain,” a local said.
He said that the residents of the Dargam have repeatedly asked the Wildlife Department to lay a trap for this leopard, but the department ignored their repeated appeals.
Locals said that the leopard attacked another shed four months ago and killed several sheep in he village.
In Kashmir, there’s been a consistent increase in confrontations between humans and wildlife.
Official records show that from 2006 to 2022, 245 fatalities and 30,000 injuries were caused by animal encounters.
Specifically, in 2019, eleven people lost their lives, five in 2020, and nine in 2021 due to wild animal attacks, with a significant portion being children aged 4-15.