A man was killed by a leopard in an agricultural land which is in inside Kudumbigala Sanctuary yesterday.
Incident Report by Team Leapcon
The agricultural land in Helamba area (Paddy Field) is situated inside Kudumbigala Sanctuary and therefore leopard sightings and moments are constant. Around 10 PM yesterday the victim was attacked by a leopard and killed in the premises. The leopard was chased away by other farmers and the body was taken by Police and Department of Wildlife Conservation for further examinations.
In areas where Protected Areas in the territory there should be careful land management, outside and inside Protected Areas, where authorities should be concerned what degree of human activities allowed. If proper land management does not happen, negative consequences will be experienced by both local people and the wildlife.
This is a good example for such poor land management, not to mention in a incident like this people will blame the wildlife but the actually parties to be blamed those who made the decisions. Land sharing should be done with a clear understanding of wildlife conservation and human needs and not for temporarily financial and political needs.
Investigations underway at the moment.