Man eater leopard killed in in JK's Reasi district

A leopard, believed to be a man-eater after it killed two boys recently, was shot dead in a village in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district, officials said on Monday.

The fully-grown leopard had killed eight-year-old Rehmat Ali and Wasim Akram (3) in the district's Mahore belt on December 8 and 17, respectively.

The authorities had declared the leopard a man-eater and constituted teams to capture or kill the big cat, they said.

"The leopard had ventured into the Sarh village in Mahore area on Sunday evening to look for prey and one of the teams, comprising of local hunters and wildlife officials, spotted it," the officials said.

They said an attempt was made to capture the leopard, but it attacked the team, prompting them to open fire. It was shot dead, the officials said.

"We are sure that this is the same animal (leopard), which killed the two boys recently," they said.

The officials said all attempts were made to capture the leopard alive. But these failed as the animal was able to avoid laid traps laid at various places.