Forest dept allows killing of Garhwa leopard

A state government agency has declared a leopard in Garhwa, India a "threat to human lives" and has issued a provisional order to shoot the animal if it poses a threat to any human being or members of the team which has been trying to capture it. The state chief wildlife warden, Sasikar Samanta, approved the proposal to declare the feline a threat and issued the provisional shooting order after the proposal was forwarded to him by Kumar Ashutosh, the regional chief conservator of forests, RCCF of Palamu. The RCCF's proposal was based on a recommendation by a fivemember committee constituted under the Garhwa conservator of forests, Dilip Kumar Yadav. The committee had been set up to monitor the movement and activities of the animal and suggest a way forward. "Though the leopard has not killed any human beings since December 28, it poses a serious threat to the residents of the villages where it is based right now. There have also been incidents where it sneaked into the homes and killed goats in the dead of the night," Samanta said. The leopard has not been declared an aberrant maneater and the order to shoot is provisional. It means that the team can shoot