Leopard beaten to death by humans in Gurugram: Who's the animal?
Weeks after a leopard was sighted in New Delhi's Yamuna Diversity Park, with many calling it a "wildlife success", another leopard — a three-year-old male — was bludgeoned to death by a mob, armed with sticks, at Mandawar village in Gurugram on November 24.
According to reports, the animal was first spotted by some villagers at around 8am. The police and wildlife officials were informed, but by the time they arrived, the leopard had allegedly attacked 12 people.
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| After being cornered by a mob, the animal, not not knowing what do, attacked the villagers. (Photo: PTI) |
However, even before forest officials and police could arrive, news of the leopard on prowl spread in the village like wildfire, and around 1,500 villagers, armed with lathis and other weapons, gathered to tame the big cat.
Even as police and forest officials tried to pacify the animal, and the villagers took matters in their own hands and mercilessly beat the leopard to death.
Not only this, locals paraded the leopard's carcass as a trophy, posed for selfies with its limp, lifeless body, and even took out a "victory march".
Who's to blame?
While a blame game follows, with villagers pointing out the failure of police and forest officials, and the officials in turn blaming the locals, one thing is certain: the human, not the animal, is at fault here.
More often than not, animals are the victims of man's bullying and encroachment. Add climate change, habitat destruction, industrialisation to the mix and the poor animal is hardly left with options. The hapless leopard, in Gurugram, was also perhaps looking for food or water in the village.
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| Locals paraded the leopard's carcass as a trophy, posed for selfies with its limp, lifeless body, and even took out a "victory march" (Photo: PTI) |
After being cornered by a mob, the animal, not not knowing what do, attacked the villagers. The first rule of human-animal conflict is to control the crowd so that the animal doesn't panic, till the next level of help arrives. This clearly didn't happen.
This episode also, perhaps, is a reminder of the animalistic side of humans. For ages, it has been believed that man is different, civilised and superior — intellectually, morally, socially — to animals, and generally averse to violence. However, this episode tells a different story.
Animal abuse and domestic abuse - the link
This incident is a reflection of the kind of "animal savagery" that human beings are capable of. This same uncontrolled human savagery, the lust to hurt and kill, is at work in crimes which have a "human concern", such as rape, domestic violence, child abuse and so on.
In fact, many studies, nationally and internationally, show links between animal abuse and domestic violence. In its simplest form, violence against animals is a forewarning that the abuser may turn violent towards people too, and vice versa.
Animals have become a part of many human families today. When multiple forms of violence occur at home, including animal abuse, the home faces an increased risk of escalated and continued violence if the condition goes unaddressed.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, researchers determined that between 71 per cent and 83 per cent of women entering domestic violence shelters reported that their partners also abused or killed family pets.
It is a shame that crimes of "human concern" have to be highlighted to draw attention to the barbaric and savage crime that is animal abuse. But this is the grim reality of being human.
Perhaps, we can truly be called human only when we realise that this act of killing a hapless leopard — who clearly panicked — is staggering proof of the barbaric crimes humans are capable of committing against each other.
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