World Wide Funds for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) staff working on the Protected Areas Management Project (PAMP) Machiara National Park, Muzaffarabad, has claimed that another common leopard was shot dead on May 29.
According to a WWF-P's spokesman here on Wednesday, as per the Park Ranger (Machiara National Park), a young male leopard was killed by an unknown person near the village of 'Kopra' Union Council Serli Sacha. The Wildlife Department staff, with the assistance of the WWF-P staff, managed to recover the body and has initiated the process of formal inquiries as per rules and regulations of the Wildlife Department of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K).
Common leopard one of the most charismatic wildlife species of Pakistan, once abandoned all over the country is now found only in the Galliat area. Human incursion into its habitat, loss of prey species and various other pressures has reduced the population of the common leopard. Although, there were cases of loss of livestock to leopards but prior to last summer (2005) there were no incidents of attacks on the human beings in Pakistan. Currently, due to events of last summer, where two deaths were caused by leopard attacks, these animals are under extreme threat.
According to official stance of the NWFP Wildlife Department, a single old common leopard was the cause of these attacks, which, later on was trapped and killed.
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