Green pasture on the other side is mesmerising when things go awry on one’s side of the fence. Over 2.5 million foraging for livelihood abroad does make sense in times when the fields within have turned barren and thereby unrewarding. There’s nothing to be apprehensive about that when the remittance flowing in gladdens the hearts. The foreign markets need imported manpower to give a helping hand to their economy. That makes our compatriots make entry into unknown lands all for the sake of keeping the body and mind together. It’s true some have more grey cells while others have muscle power, but both types make good adjustments as long as the demand continues. As long as it is not termed an intrusion, it’s welcome, unlike the leopard making forays within the metropolis limits.

Now, when a leopard decides to opt for a change by walking in uninvited and aimlessly into the city, it’s time to get the barrels ready. This time around, the leopard that came into Kathmandu from the wild a few days back was not as lucky. Instead of being snared alive as a souvenir for the zoo, it lost its life to bullets when the tranquilising attempts failed. A tragic end for a protected wild animal because human life is more valuable, like the culling of the thousands of chickens and ducks last month. The leopard unknowingly visited the human domain and paid with its life with no one to remember it fondly later on.