Rare Snow Leopard "Sentenced To Prison" For Killing Livestock

The endangered animal was found on the morning of April 5 in the remote Giu village in Himachal Pradesh, near the Tibetan border. The creature crept into a sheep and goat pen to hunt and was trapped inside.

Forest official Hardev Negi who led the team to catch the leopard said that the big cat couldn’t get out of the enclosure after killing the livestock. The team was contacted by the shepherd to come and capture the animal.

According to Savita Sharma, the state wildlife official, they won’t release the snow leopard into the wild since it was caught in a wild animal-human conflict. The official also revealed that in Himal Pradesh, there are 44 snow leopards left. They are living in the treacherous valleys and high passes.

The feline killed around 43 goats and sheep while being trapped for four days in the pen.

The decision has started a debate in India. Rejeshwar Negi from the National Convener of Nature Watch India is absolutely against this. He states that the people who captured the snow leopard wouldn’t know the stress that the animal would face during transit.

He also emphasizes that the temperatures at the Shimla zoo are much higher than the natural habitat of the snow leopard.

Hunting has led to the vanishing of blue sheep and ibex. As a result, snow leopards had to go to a lower altitude to look for food.

Global warming is another reason. Negi says that the tree Line is pushed higher because of the warmer temperatures, leading to farmers moving upwards into the mountains to farm as well as grazing livestock, trespassing the territory of the snow leopard.

Maintaining ecological balance is critical in saving the highly endangered species. It is time for humans to understand the effect on the ecological system once an entire species disappear from the wild and how that will affect indirectly our lives in the long term.

>>> Captive Tiger Walks In Endless Circles Inside Its Enclosure