On Saturday, a five-member gang in Kerala's Idukki district was arrested by the Kerala Forest Department for trapping, killing, and then eating a six-year-old male leopard. Though there have been incidents of people hunting deer, wild boar, pig, wild porcupines, sambar deer, and bison and consuming their meat, it is the first time such an incident is recorded in the history of Kerala.

The incident took place in Kerala’s Mankulam forest division and it is reported that all five members of the gang are residents of Mankulam. The accused have been identified as Mankulam residents Kollikolavil Vinod PK (45), Basil Garden VP Kuriakose (74), Chempenpurayidathil CS Binu (50), Malayil Sali Kunjappan (54), and Vadakkumchalil Vincent (50).

The forest officials carried out an inspection at Vinod's house as they got a tip-off. Reportedly, the leopard was trapped using iron cables at the farmland of Vinod. In the subsequent investigation, the other four accused were also arrested. After killing the wild animal, Vinod had shared the meat with the four other accused. It is said that the accused saw videos on YouTube on how to trap leopards. After waiting for about 2 weeks, it was only on the 15th day that the leopard got trapped, on January 20.

Out of the 40 kilos of the meat, ten kilos of uncooked meat were recovered from the accused. During the raid, officials recovered cooked leopard meat, uncooked meat, teeth, nails and skin of the killed cat.

According to Mankulam range officer V B Udayasuryan, the first accused Vinod was proficient in hunting wild animals and three years ago he had killed a porcupine and consumed its meat. The accused have been remanded.