Recently, forest officials caught a rare snow leopard that ravished livestock in a remote village in the Indian Himalayas.?
And now reports reveal that the rare and endangered feline is being sent to a zoo instead of being released in the wild, upsetting and enraging activists around the world.
Forest officials caught the leopard after it was trapped inside a pen holding sheep and goats in the Giu village near the Tibetan border in Himachal Pradesh.?
Hardev Negi, the forest official who lead the team to capture the leopard said in a statement to AFP, "The big cat was unable to escape from the enclosure after killing a few livestock. The shepherd contacted us and we captured the animal in a cage."
According to the state wildlife official Savita Sharma, the snow leopard won¡¯t be released into the wild since it was an incident of wild animal-human conflict. She also revealed that there are only 44 snow leopards living in the high passes and treacherous valleys in Himachal Pradesh.
Officials estimate that the feline managed to kill around 43 sheep and goat while being trapped in the pen for nearly four days.
Rajeshwar Negi, the National Convener of Nature Watch India, said the decision was unjust and it was forcing the leopard to live a life without freedom.
Talking about the stress animals face during transit, he stated, "Don't they know how stressful it will be for the animal to be transported on a bumpy 350-kilometre long road.¡±
He added, ¡°Does it mean the snow leopard will spend the rest of its life in a zoo instead of the Himalayan wilds?"
He also put emphasis on the fact that the zoo in Shimla has higher temperatures compared to where the Snow Leopard is used to living in its natural habitat.?
Negi also revealed that snow leopards were being forced to move to a lower altitude as their natural prey which includes the ibex and blue sheep have completely vanished due to hunting.
Global warming is also to blame, he says as warmer temperatures push the tree line higher, tempting farmers to move upwards in the mountains to farm and graze livestock, entering the snow leopard territory.
Obviously, maintaining ecological balance is paramount to ensuring the survival of these highly endangered snow leopard species, and it's high time humanity tried to understand the adverse effect of having entire species of animals disappearing from the wild, and how it will indirectly affect human lives in the long term.