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There are three to four man-eating leopards in the Galliat area but the NWFP Wildlife Department lacks the facilities to kill them, Suhail Nasir Tehwar Ali Khan, a Pakistani hunter, told reporters at Lahore Press Club on Saturday.
* NWFP Wildlife Department lacks facilities to deal with the situation
LAHORE: There are three to four man-eating leopards in the Galliat area but the NWFP Wildlife Department lacks the facilities to kill them, Suhail Nasir Tehwar Ali Khan, a Pakistani hunter, told reporters at Lahore Press Club on Saturday.
Khan visited Galliat last month and killed a leopard in Aliabad. He had offered his services to the government to kill the remaining man-eating leopards. He said that leopards had killed six women, two children and a man in Galliat.
He said that he reached Aliabad in Galliat on July 13. The locals were fear stricken because a leopard had killed a woman a day earlier. He said that he explored the jungle with wildlife officials that night and found 15-16 leopards inhabiting various caves. He said that a leopard jumped on him when he moved closer and was shot dead by a rifle shot. He said that the NWFP Wildlife Department's claim that man-eating leopards had been killed was false. He said that there were almost 150 leopards in the area and at least four of them were man-eaters.
Khan said that the government should help him kill the man-eaters. He said that he would go to Galliat again on Sunday to explore the area.
The hunter said that since 1984, the NWFP Wildlife Department had protected the leopards in the area but did not look after the provision of food for leopards. He said there were no jackals, monkeys, rabbits or other animals in the jungle that could feed the leopards.
He said that the leopards had come down the valley in search of food and had started attacking goats and other domestic animals. He said that they killed women who went to the jungle to cut grass and the leopard found them easy prey.
He said the leopards were unable to migrate to India during this year's heavy snowfall. He said the fences on both sides of the border and the road from Aliabad to Nathia Gali had disturbed the area's natural habitat. Khan said that the NWFP Wildlife Department had no facilities to fight man-eating leopards. He said that the department should form a team of veterinary doctors and use detachable cages, dart guns and a helicopter to hunt down these animals.
He said it was difficult to dart a leopard in the hilly area because a dart took two to three minutes to knock it unconscious and during this time it often jumps into a ditch. He said a helicopter was needed to reach the leopard immediately because the darts cause water to flow from its eyes and if the eyes were not creamed immediately, the man-eater could lose sight. Khan is the son of internationally famed hunter Tehwar Ali Khan who wrote many books including ‘Man-eaters of Sunder bun', ‘Distress signal of Sunder ban' and ‘Rouge Elephant of Chittagong'. Khan killed 11 man-eating leopards in East Pakistan.