The death of an eight old girl in a Leopard attack in the Ompora area of Budgam district triggering a row over the working and accountability of the wildlife department shows delinquency of head of the wildlife department in district Budgam and also the carelessness of the parents of the victim. Knowing that inputs about the movement of five leopards in the Ompora nursery have been reported by the locals of the area well in advance, the head of the wildlife department of Budgam district should have directed the field functionaries of the concerned area to keep a track of the movements of the leopards and subsequently arrange some trapping cages for catching the leopards alive in the area. Now one leopard has been caught alive in the adjoining Khansahb area but only a day after wildlife department’s carelessness consumed precious life of an eight year old girl. Since clearing the bushes of for the purposes of clearing the visibility in the evening hours in any wildlife area is one of strongest preventive measures, it would have been better for district head of the wildlife department to get the bushes of the Ompora nursery cleared and fix up trapping cages under her personal supervision. Ultimately strict restrictions on public movement in the evening hours after receiving inputs about the movement of the leopards would have reduced the chances of the killing of the eight year old girl by the leopard in the early evening hours last Thursday. While the wildlife department is to be blamed for all the carelessness it has shown in taking all the preventive measures after receiving inputs about the movements of five leopards in the area, the parents of the ill fated girl can be equally blamed for keeping one side of the outer fencing walls of their house incomplete even after knowing all about the movements of the leopards in the nursery and also down in the populated settlements in Ompora area.
Both the wildlife authorities and as well as the people have to take lessons from the brutal killing of the girl by the leopard due to careless of both the wild life department and as well as the people particularly the family of the victim. What matters the most is the immediate expansion of the wildlife department for the purposes of the protection of human settlements against attacks from wild animals in the biggest wildlife areas from Qazigund the gateway of Kashmir to Khadniyar in Baramulla district , Karnah in Kupwara district Gurez in Bandipora district and Kangan in Ganderbal district.
Had the parents of the ill fated girl taken the precautionary measures after hearing about the movements of the leopards in the area, the brutal killing of the innocent girl won’t have left them in deep shock and grief. Both the wildlife authorities and as well as the people have to take lessons from the brutal killing of the girl by the leopard due to careless of both the wild life department and as well as the people particularly the family of the victim. What matters the most is the immediate expansion of the wildlife department for the purposes of the protection of human settlements against attacks from wild animals in the biggest wildlife areas from Qazigund the gateway of Kashmir to Khadniyar in Baramulla district , Karnah in Kupwara district Gurez in Bandipora district and Kangan in Ganderbal district.
