ISLAMABAD: A critically injured female leopard, named Malika, succumbed to serious gunshot wounds weeks after being rescued from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The feline was being treated at the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board’s (IWMB) rescue centre, for severe wounds she had sustained due to being shot.
Last week, the board declared her condition as “critical” after doctors at the Islamabad Wildlife Rescue Centre (IWRC) discovered four bullet wounds in the wild cat’s body in an X-ray report.
This development came after the leopard was rescued from a nullah (water channel) in AJK’s Haveli district on September 7 and was handed over to the IWMB by the Azad Kashmir Wildlife Department for treatment at the board’s rescue centre. When the mammal was rescued, the wildlife guards, who rescued her, initially thought that she had suffered severe internal injuries as she was unable to stand or move her hindlegs, despite showing no visible external wounds or bleeding.
However, after discovering bullet wounds in her body, veterinary surgeons rushed to operate on her. They successfully removed one bullet from her body. Soon after that, her condition was declared “critical” by the board.
According to the IWMB, the extracted bullet was fired from a 12-bore shotgun, while the others lodged in the animal’s vertebrae and heart area became the cause of her death.
The AJK Wildlife Department already started an investigation into the incident and applied to the local police to register a first information report (FIR) against unidentified attackers.
As per the Pakistan Wildlife Department, the common leopard is listed as a protected species and is illegal to hunt in all provincial laws of the country. The leopards are confined to northern Pakistan with infrequent reports of sightings in some areas of Balochistan. Besides deforestation and pelt business as a major threat, the mammal is endangered due to frequent occurrences of attacks in their habitat due to the illiteracy of locals.
 rescue centre, for severe wounds she had sustained due to being shot){kind=link}