E-Paper
7-year-old girl in Tehri becomes fifth leopard victim in less than a month in Uttarakhand
The leopard attacked the girl in the night when she went to the washroom outside the house.
A 7-year-old girl became the latest victim of leopards in Uttarakhand after she was attacked outside her home in Tehri Garhwal district late Sunday night, officials said on Monday.
This is the fifth case of a child being killed by a leopard in Uttarakhand in the past one month.
DS Meena, divisional forest officer of Narendra Nagar forest division in the district said that the incident occurred late on Sunday night when the girl went to the washroom outside the house by herself.
“The incident occurred around 9:30 pm on Sunday night when the 7-year-old was attacked by a leopard outside her house. The girl was going to use the washroom outside the house when the animal dragged her away. Her body was later recovered from a nearby forest area on Sunday night itself and sent for post-mortem examination on Monday afternoon,” said the DFO.
Villagers protested after the incident demanding that the leopard be declared as a man-eater and eliminated. They have been cautioned against letting their children come out of houses without being accompanied by elders.
The DFO further said that the forest department has installed a cage and camera traps to track the leopard’s movements and catch it.
On October 7, a 7-year-old girl was killed in a leopard attack outside her house in Berinag division of Pithoragarh district. On October 1, a 14-year-old boy was killed by a leopard in Pauri Garhwal district when he was grazing cattle in the forest area.
On September 24, a leopard killed an 11-year-old girl in Pithoragarh district when she was collecting fodder near her house. On September 19, a 7-year-old girl was mauled to death by a leopard when she was playing near her house in Almora district.