A leopard is pictured at the Yala National Park in the southern district of Yala some 250km southwest of Colombo. Yala National Park is the most visited and second largest national park in Sri Lanka.
Two men were arrested in Sri Lanka on suspicion of beating a leopard to death, a “sickening” act filmed and broadcast on social networks, authorities lamented on Sunday.
The two men are accused of having killed the feline, considered an endangered species, on Thursday after the latter attacked a dozen people in a village 330 kilometers north of Colombo.
“It’s disgusting to see these images,” the Deputy Minister for Wildlife, Palitha Thewarapperuma, responded to parliament.
The two arrested remain in jail while the investigation continues to arrest the others involved, police said.
“We have the two main suspects in custody but we are looking for ten other people who participated in the killing,” said a police spokesperson.
Sri Lankan leopards, estimated at less than 1,000, are on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list of endangered animals.
Injuring a leopard is punishable by up to five years in prison in Sri Lanka.
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