Representative image of a leopard.
Credit: PTI File Photo
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a plea challenging the order by Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan, to shoot man-eating leopard on sight, news agency ANI reported.
The lawyer who sought a hearing today itself said that there are shoot-at-sight orders against the leopard in Rajasthan Reserve.
Earlier, an expert shooter from Hyderabad had been roped in to kill the man-eater leopard in Rajasthan's Udaipur district as several teams involving the army, police and forest department personnel fanned out in the forests looking for the animal.
The leopard, which has reportedly killed seven people, has not been traced so far.
Alarmed over the rising number of deaths, forest authorities issued an order on Tuesday to shoot down the leopard. The order came after a 55-year-old woman, Kamla Kanwar, was mauled to death on Tuesday morning outside her house in Suawaton ka Gudha when she was feeding fodder to livestock.
The permission was granted under conditions that an attempt should be made to tranquilise or trap the leopard. However, in case the animal cannot be tranquilised or trapped, its correct identification should be ensured before killing the animal.
(With PTI inputs)