Kerala gang held for poaching, consuming leopard

A male leopard aged six was trapped, killed and its meat cooked and consumed by a five-member gang at Mankulam in the high-range district of Idukki in Kerala. The gang was held in this connection.

The forest authorities recovered the skin, teeth and nails of the leopard, apart from around 500 gram cooked leopard meat. The gang was trying to sell the skin, teeth and nails of the leopard in the grey market where it could fetch at least Rs 25,000 and even many lakhs based on demand, forest department sources said.

The gang members, aged between 45 and 74, had consumed a portion of the meat and also suspected to have sold the remaining. All of them hailed from nearby areas of Mankulam, which is around 30 kilometres from the Munnar tourist spot.

The gang trapped the leopard using a snare with cable at a farm of the prime accused Vinod, 45, which was close to the forest areas on Wednesday. They were in search of a dealer to sell the skin, teeth and nails when the forest officials nabbed him.

Range forest officer V B Udayasooryan, who led the team that nabbed the gang on Friday, told DH that all the accused confessed that they had poached many wild animals in a similar manner earlier also. However, those incidents went unnoticed. All the accused were also having criminal backgrounds. They were charged under various sections of the
Wildlife Protection Act, he said.

The meat of most wild animals used to have a good demand in the grey market. But instances of consuming leopard meat were reported very rarely, the forest officials said.

Others accused were Kuriakose, 74, D S Binu, 50, Sali Kunjappan, 54, and Vincent, 50.