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Man-eater leopard that killed 8-year-old boy shot dead by hunters in Tehri
The leopard had returned to its kill site to devour the boy’s remaining body on Monday night when the hunters shot the animal to death.
MUSSOORIE: A leopard which killed an eight-year-old boy from Akhodi village in Bhilangana block of district Tehri on Saturday, was shot to death by two hunters deployed by the forest department on Tuesday morning, officials said.
“The leopard had returned to its kill site to devour the remaining body on Monday night when the two shooters Gambhir Singh and Joy Hukil shot the leopard. The leopard, after being injured, fled into the forest and hid in a thick bush the whole night,” said Ashish Nautiyal, forest range officer from the Bhilangana division.
The hunters began the search in the morning and were finally able to shoot down the leopard at around 11.30am in the morning, he added.
On examination, the forest officials found that the nails of the leopard were damaged which might have been making it difficult for it to hunt its natural prey and as such it had turned to attack humans out of hunger.
The post-mortem is being conducted on the Leopard to determine the reasons behind the change in the animal’s behaviour.
The family members of the deceased Naveen, son of Sohan Singh Rawat, have been given ₹ 4 lakh compensation by the forest department.
The boy was killed by the leopard when he was going to attend a wedding ceremony along with his grandmother on Saturday. Instead of walking with his grandmother, he ran ahead to burst the crackers with his other friends near the village where the marriage function was going on. The leopard that was on the prowl in the bushes saw the opportunity and pounced upon the boy and dragged him to the forest. His grandmother, not finding him in the village, launched a search along with the other villagers and found his half-eaten body in the bushes on the path to the village. The forest department officials were informed immediately and they rushed to the spot. On demand of the villagers, the department deployed two sharpshooters who eventually killed the leopard on Tuesday morning.
Over 400 people have been killed in leopard attacks in Uttarakhand since the state was formed in 2000. Human deaths in leopard attacks account for nearly half of the total deaths due to wild animals in the state, reveals the data of the state forest department. Wildlife experts say there are many factors due to which it has been difficult to check man-leopard conflict in the state, be it the hilly terrain which provides ample space to leopards to hide in human settlements scattered in hills overlapping with the leopard territories.
In July last year, the Uttarakhand Forest department released instructions for checking and dealing with the man-leopard conflict in the Himalayan state. The directions issued said that quick response teams be deployed in such areas by the officials concerned where leopard movement is spotted and leopard attacks are being reported. After the leopard attacks, the officials concerned should try to understand the circumstances under which the leopards are attacking and come up with measures to check that such incidents don’t occur in the area in future.
