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Leopard kills watchman in Lakhimpur Kheri, third killing in 3 days
The latest incident took place when the victim, a resident of Rampur Grant-18 village, was sleeping on a cot near Jamnabad agriculture farm on Wednesday night.
LAKHIMPUR KHERI: In yet another human-leopard conflict incident in Lakhimpur Kheri, a 55-year-old watchman, identified as Hira Lal, was attacked, dragged to an agriculture field, and then killed by a leopard on Wednesday night. This is the third human death due to a leopard attack in the district in the last three days. Earlier, on October 4, Lakhimpur Kheri had reported another such killing.
The latest incident took place when the victim, a resident of Rampur Grant-18 village, was sleeping on a cot near Jamnabad agriculture farm on Wednesday night. The leopard attacked the unarmed victim and left his mutilated body in the nearby field, according to forest officials.
Swinging into action, Sanjay Biswal, divisional forest officer of south Kheri forest division, ordered concerned officials to install seven cages and set up 20 camera traps to capture the feline. He said that patrolling teams have been deployed to comb the vulnerable area while urging the locals to remain alert, especially during night hours.
What’s behind increasing frequency of leopard attacks in Lakhimpur Kheri?
The increasing frequency of man-animal conflict incidents in the south Kheri forest division has left authorities deeply concerned.
According to Sanjay Biswal, DFO of the division, the prolonged stay of migrant elephants in the Maheshpur range and the Dudhwa buffer zone has probably forced the big cats to stray away from forest areas and take shelter in nearby sugarcane fields.
He added that the migrant elephants had earlier returned to Nepal through the Khutar range in the Shahjahanpur district after crossing the Kathina river in the south Kheri division. However, this year, the flooded Kathina river has prevented migrant tuskers from undertaking the return journey. Consequently, big cats inside the forests are probably moving to the fringes of the forests.
Notably, a large herd of wild elephants is reported to have been camping in the Maheshpur range forests, which are close to Gola and Mohammadi range forests.
