The accused had laced the carcass of his pet dog with poison to kill the leopard which had killed his pet

Gundlupet: Forest Department personnel have arrested a man on charges of poisoning a four-year-old female leopard. The accused had laced the carcass of his pet  dog with poison with the ulterior motive to kill the leopard which had killed his pet.

The accused has been identified as Ramesh of Mallayyanapura village in Gundlupet taluk. He was working as a watchman at a farm in Kootanur Elle village falling under the buffer zone of Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

The carcass of a leopard was found at the agricultural field of G.R. Govindaraju at Kootanur Elle village. During preliminary investigation by Forest personnel, it appeared to be a case of poisoning. The farm labourers and watchmen in the vicinity were subjected to inquiry, during which Ramesh, the watchman of a neighbouring farm owned by Somashekar, fell in the net.

Ramesh had killed the animal out of vengeance to avenge the death of his pet dog three days ago. He was aware that the leopard would return to consume its prey after killing it and had  laced the carcass of the dog with poison, according to his confession statement made before the Forest personnel.

The leopard which returned to its kill, devoured the carcass and died in the neighbouring field on the night of June 21.  Forest Department Veterinarian Dr. Wasim Mirza conducted post-mortem before cremating the carcass of the leopard.

The case was solved under the guidance of Bandipur Tiger Reserve Director Dr. P. Ramesh Kumar, by the team comprising Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) G. Ravindra, Range Forest Officer (RFO) N.P. Naveen Kumar, NGO member Raghuram, Deputy Range Forest Officers (DRFOs) C.N. Mudduraju, G.P. Bharath, B.S. Kiran Kumar, Karthik Surapura and Sripal, Forest Guards Parasappa H. Madar and R. Siddaraju, Forest Watcher Santosh Kumar, drivers Abdul Haneef, R. Raghavendra and Mahendra.

Another leopard found dead

A carcass of another leopard was found near an agricultural field at Kaligowdanahalli near Hangala in Bandipur Forest limits. Forest personnel who rushed to the spot on information from farm workers, confirmed that it was a female leopard aged about two years.

According to Veterinarians, the animal is suspected to have died of injuries it had sustained during a fight with another animal. However, the viscera samples of the dead animal was collected and sent to Forensic Science Laboratory, to know the exact reason behind the death. Bandipur Tiger Reserve Director Dr. P. Ramesh Kumar, ACF M.N. Naveen, RFO H.M. Manjunath, DRFO Jnanashekar, Forest Guard Barkat Ali and staff were present.