Baramulla: One more child fell prey to wild animals in Bernate village of Boniyar in Uri taking the toll of such deaths to three in three days and forcing authorities to issue orders to kill or capture the animals on killing spree.
Locals of Barnate village told Kashmir Images that a girl identified as Rutba Manzoor daughter of Manzoor Ahmad Bhat of Bernate village of Boniyar was attacked by a wild animal when she was playing in courtyard of her home and took her body to nearby forests.
“Alarmed by her cries and screams, family and locals tried to chase the wild animal, possibly a leopard, however, the beast disappeared in the dense forests with the child,” they added.
Pertinently, this is the third such tragic incident in the last 48 hours in Uri area.
Following the death of the girl, whose body was recovered from the adjacent forest, hundreds of people took to streets marched from Barnate to Boniyar to stage strong protests against Wildlife department and district administration at main market Boniyar.
The protesting people blocked Baramulla-Uri national highway for hours and kept the body of slain girl on highway outside Tehsil headquarters in Boniyar.
The protestors shouted slogans against the Wildlife Department and civil administration for their alleged failure to contain the incidents in the area. “The authorities are not taking any strong steps to tackle the issue which unfortunately has led to back-to-back killings of children”, a protestor said.
“This is the third incident in our area in last three days, we had already informed the Wildlife Department about the free roaming of wild animals in the area, but they did not take any measure to protect our lives and children,” said Abdul Khaliq, a neighbor of the victim.
The protestors were later pacified by SDM and SDPO Uri and dispersed from the site peacefully.
Meanwhile a Wildlife Department official said that they have already sent several parties to the area to trace the animal. “It happens that such beasts frequently change locations making it relatively difficult for us to catch them”, he said adding we are putting our efforts to catch the wild beasts or if required kill the beast in the shortest possible time.”
Notably, two minor boys fell prey to wild animal(s) in two incidents in the last few days at Cholan Kalsi Ghati and Trikanjan Boniyar areas.
Meanwhile, Rang Officer Wildlife Baramulla, Altaf Koul said that encounters between man and animal have increased due to the occupation of animal habitation by humans.
“I am on the spot in Bernate forests; we have three teams in each spot, Bernate, Trikajan and Kalsan. Besides putting dozens of cages, nine teams are accompanied by sharpshooters and both Army and police have been taken for assistance,” he said.
Animals particularly leopards and bears enter localities adjacent to forest areas in search of food. We need to be more vigilant and careful about the safety of people, especially children. We will hopefully capture or kill the man eater animal in coming days,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Baramulla, Dr Syed Sehrish Asgar today directed the concerned authorities to capture or eliminate the man eater leopard by mobilizing all the available resource.
Dr. Sehrish issued these directions during a meeting convened in her office chamber with the concerned stakeholders in order to discuss the immediate and necessary action plan to hunt the man eater leopard for averting any further untoward incident.
Meanwhile, the Wildlife department has issued an advisory about dos and donts to the people of the area and has asked them to follow the same to avoid any loses.
