SHIMLA: A rare snow leopard captured as it savaged livestock in a remote village in the Indian Himalaya will be sent to a zoo instead of being released, officials said on Sunday, triggering outrage from activists.

The endangered creature was found on Saturday after it became trapped inside a pen containing sheep and goats in Giu village near the Tibetan border in India’s Himachal Pradesh state.

“The big cat was unable to escape from the enclosure after killing a few livestock,” wildlife official Hardev Negi, who led the team that caught the snow leopard, said.

“The shepherd contacted us and we captured the animal in a cage.” The state’s chief wildlife official Savita Sharma said the snow leopard was not being released since the incident involved “wild animal-human conflict,” adding it would be transferred to a zoo in the foothills outside the state capital Shimla.

Officials estimated that the juvenile animal killed 43 sheep and goats in the pen over four days.

There are only 44 snow leopards living in the high passes and rugged valleys of Himachal Pradesh, according to Sharma.

Rajeshwar Negi, the National Convener of Nature Watch India said the decision was condemning the creature to a life without freedom. “Don’t they know how stressful it will be for the animal to be transported on a bumpy 350-kilometre long road,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2020