People rescue leopard cub in Kashmir

Bhadarwah (JK), Mar 6: People rescued a leopard cub from the vicinity of Bhadarwah village in Jammu and Kashmir. The village youth were playing cricket in Bhadarwah, when they heard unusual shrill chirpings of the birds at a particular place when they went to search for the ball.

"We heard a lot of birds chirping at one particular place while we were playing cricket. When we went to check, we found this beautiful little creature which we thought was a cat," said Ramesh Lal, a resident. The young boys then managed to catch the animal even though it gave them tough time by scratching their skin.

Wildlife officials said the state has witnessed heavy snowfall this year making the life of the wild creatures tough as snowfall has had an adverse impact on the availability of food in the forests both for the herbivores and carnivores.

"There has been unprecedented snowfall in the region. Because of that the forests are covered with a blanket of five to seven feet thick snow. This has consequently resulted in the loss of food for the wildlife. Animals are, therefore, facing problem for food," said M.L. Zandu, Divisional Forest Officer, Bhadarwah.

According to the forest officials, in recent times there has been an increase in the incidents of wild animals coming near the human habitat. This has also been taken to mean as an index of the growth of their population because of ban on hunting imposed by the government in 1997. According to experts, increasing human interference such as development, encroachments and destruction of habitat, as well as poaching, are the main threat to wildlife across the country.

ANI