Leave the animals their territory

The recent fatal leopard attack on a pilgrim of the annual Pada Yatra, raises questions about the ‘goings on’ inside the Yala National Park.

Kumudini Hettiarachchi reports

The anguished shriek of "Appah" rent the early morning stillness, sending the bleary-eyed Pada Yatra devotees running to the bank of the Menik Ganga in the Yala National Park. It was dawn on Sunday, July 10, and the scene that met the devotees who rushed to the scrub jungle on the river-bank sent chilling fear up their spine. Right before their eyes, a leopard with its jaws clamped over the bloodied neck of 31-year-old Krishnapulle Chandrakumari was dragging her into the jungle. It was only a frenzy of shouting that made the leopard ease its vice-like grip, the Sunday Times understands, but even while they were carrying her to the place where they had laid down their weary heads the previous night on the dried up riverbed the predator had been slinking about in the vicinity, growling in anger, having to be warded off with firebrands. Read Full Article: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110717/Plus/plus_11.html