BAREILLY Angry people killed a leopard hours after it mauled a 14-year old boy to death in Bijnore’s Bhogpur village on Monday.
Six people were killed in leopard attacks since November last year in the district and the forest department now planned to use drone cameras and set up traps to track the movement of big cats.
Senior forest and administration officials, including district magistrate Ramakant Pandey and SP (city) Lakshmi Nivas Mishra, reached the village with a large number of policemen on getting the news of the killing.
While the boy’s body was sent to the district hospital for autopsy, a post-mortem examination was also carried out on the leopard, which was killed in a sugarcane field by the villagers.
According to Najibabad divisional forest officer Manoj Kumar Shukla, “The leopard killed Prashant Kumar, 14, of Bhogpur village. Later, the villagers shot it dead. The boy’s family will be given Rs 5 lakh as compensation.”
The SP (city) said, “A case will be registered in this connection based on the complaint of forest authorities.”
According to officials, Prashant Kumar, son of Jai Prakash, was a Class 7 student at the government primary school. He had left school around 1pm after having his mid-day meal. The school is located on the outskirts of Bhogpur village, near sugarcane fields.
He was walking towards the sugarcane field when a male leopard suddenly emerged from the cane stalks, pounced on him, dragged him into the field and killed him. A passerby, Kapil Kumar, who witnessed the attack and tried to rescue the boy, was also injured.
{{/usCountry}}He was walking towards the sugarcane field when a male leopard suddenly emerged from the cane stalks, pounced on him, dragged him into the field and killed him. A passerby, Kapil Kumar, who witnessed the attack and tried to rescue the boy, was also injured.
{{/usCountry}}He was stated to be out of danger.