Wild animal scare in Rajouri, Poonch
Shariq Majeed/Tribune News Service

Rajouri, August 3
With the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife Department having negligible staff in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, people are falling prey to wild animals.

There have been around six attacks on people by wild animals in these districts in the past fortnight. More than 12 persons (mostly children) have been seriously injured in the attacks whereas a girl child was killed by a leopard.

The wildlife staff in the districts comprise 20 personnel, 18 from the social forestry department and two from the wild life department. On July 27, a leopard killed a four-year-old girl at Ghambir Muglan village and fed on her body in front of hapless members of her family.

“My daughter Razia Kouser was playing outside when a wild animal, most probably a leopard, attacked her. It fed on her body in front of our eyes. We could only manage to recover some of her bones from the adjoining fields”, said Muhammad Zubair, father of the victim.

“The wildlife department has no presence here. Our children are falling easy prey to the wild animals.”

During the past fortnight, wild animals have attacked people in Bhattian, Planger in Thanamandi tehsils and in some villages of the Budhal area.Four children at Bhattian village and two in Plangerh village of the Thanamandi area were attacked by leopard. Earlier, a woman was injured by a bear in Peeri village of the Budhal area last month.

A bear killed a resident in Sawajian village last week. “There have been innumerable instances of bear attacks in the Loran Mandi area here over the past few years, killing dozens of people”, said Muhammad Akram Khan, a retired forest officer, from Poonch.

Regional wildlife warden, Jammu province, Naseer Ahmed Kitchloo admitted that there was a shortage of wildlife staff in Rajouri and Poonch.

However, senior officers of the police and forest department, said their departments didn’t have much technical knowhow about dealing with the cases.