MITHI: Thari villagers beat to death a rare cheetah, which was believed to have crossed into Tharparkar from India a few days ago, in Morano village, Islamkot taluka, on Tuesday.

The villagers chased and killed the predator after it had reportedly devoured over 10 sheep and goats over the past few days.

They told media persons that when they spotted the rare cheetah they informed officials of the wildlife department and asked them to catch it alive but they did not bother to help them.

“After receiving poor response from the officials we were left with no other option but to chase and kill the animal, which was decimating our cattle’” they said, adding they had buried the carcass after having to kill it.

The wildlife department’s deputy conservative Mir Aijaz Talpur claimed that the officials had asked the villagers to wait for a day since they had requested their high-ups in Karachi to send a team of expert animal rescuers to catch the predator alive. But they did not wait and killed the rare cheetah in haste in violation of the law, he said, adding that legal action would be taken against those who were involved in killing the animal.

A few months back, residents of another village had also killed a cheetah which had entered the area after crossing over from India.

Published in Dawn, january 4th, 2023