Oft Sri Lanka has sighed and cried over brutal and heart-rending photographs of dead majestic leopards battered, poisoned or noosed either around their necks or agonizingly around their stomachs and hanging on trees.

Soon after, we have forgotten these terrible incidents and moved on until the next killing. Déjà vu seems to have been the motto, with no action whatsoever.

This is about to change – next Tuesday (August 19), the launch of the ‘Livestock Insurance Scheme’ will not just augur well for our iconic leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) but also for the maligned farmer eking out a living through animal husbandry. This scheme is reportedly among the first in Sri Lanka to use ‘insurance’ as a biodiversity ‘conservation tool’.

To read the full story visit https://www.sundaytimes.lk/250817/plus/supporting-communities-and-saving-the-leopard-608412.html