A leopard that has been posing a threat to the Mankulam region of Idukki district in Kerala died in an encounter with a person of the tribal settlement on Saturday morning.
The female leopard aged around 12 years was posing a threat in the region for quite some time by killing many domestic animals including goats and hens.
On Saturday morning Gopalan, 47, a resident of the Muthuvan tribal settlement of the area came across the leopard. The leopard pounced on Gopalan and attacked him causing serious injuries. Gopalan tried to resist the attack using a knife that he was carrying. He waved the knife against the leopard and it suffered fatal injuries on the head.
Gopalan suffered fractures on his left hand apart from other injuries. He was admitted to a government hospital at nearby Adimali.
Mankulam divisional forest officer Jayachandran told DH that prima facie the leopard got killed following an act of self-defense by Gopalan.Hence no case was registered against him so far.
Further measures would be taken based on the postmortem examination report of the leopard, he said.
Published 03 September 2022, 11:41 IST