Uttarakhand: Leopard kills 12-year-old boy in Tehri

Human-animal conflict is on the rise in the state resulting in angst among villagers who have sought action to remove leopards lurking around villages

A 12-year-old boy from Aldi village in the Ghansali region of Uttarakhand’s Tehri district was attacked and killed by a leopard while he was returning home after playing with friends on Sunday evening.

Representational image. (Deepak Sansta/ HT File Photo)

“The family members of the deceased boy called the police after he went missing, following which a joint team from revenue police, Ghansali police station and the forest department rushed to the spot. After intensive combing, we recovered the half-eaten body of the deceased boy, 500 metre away from his house in village lying in the bushes at around 2.30 am on Monday morning,” Pradeep Chauhan, forest ranger from Balganga range in Tehri, said.

The deceased boy was a student of Class 6 at a government school near his village.

“The body of the deceased has been sent for post-mortem to the primary health centre in Pilkhi, and the exercise to trap the leopard has begun,” VK Singh, divisional forest officer of Tehri, said.

Human-animal conflict is on the rise in the state resulting in angst among villagers who have sought action to remove leopards lurking around villages.

A four-year-old boy was killed by a leopard in Badeth village under Chakisain Tehsil in the Pauri district in April. In February, a 54-year-old man from Pasar village in Tehri fell prey to leopard attack. Over 450 people have been killed in leopard attacks in the state since it was formed in 2000.