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Leopard kills 50-year-old woman in Uttarakhand’s Almora
The Uttarakhand forest department had declared leopard a man-eater on January 9.
A leopard which has been declared a man-eater killed a 50-year-woman in Uttarakhand’s Almora district on Tuesday, forest officials said Wednesday.
The leopard eluded three cages installed to catch trap it to attack the woman.
Mohan Ram Arya, range officer of Jaurasi range in Almora said, “On Tuesday evening, we rushed to the spot on learning about the incident and took into possession the woman’s partially devoured body. The leopard has been roaming in the area and this is the fourth incident of attack on women in a month.”
The incident came to light when villagers launched a search after she went missing on Tuesday. The villagers found her remains in the forest, 300 metres from Barangal village.
Kheema Nand Balodi, the village head said, “Her torch was lying at the main door. Most probably she might have come out of the house in the night to relieve herself but fell prey to leopard.”
On January 9, this leopard had been declared as a ‘man-eater’ by the state forest department.
Mahatim Singh Yadav divisional forest officer (DFO) of Almora had said, “The chief wildlife warden has issued an order declaring the leopard as dangerous to human life. We have been permitted to tranquilize and cage the leopard first. In the condition of failing to catch the leopard, then we have been instructed to shoot it.”
This leopard has previously attacked three women, including two in Almora and one in neighbouring Pauri Garhwal district. After these attacks, furious locals demanded that the leopard be shot.
There has been a rise in leopard attacks in Uttarakhand recently. On December 1, a 65-year-old man was killed by a leopard in Chamoli district. In the first week of November, a 21-year-old woman was killed in a leopard attack in Champawat district. Three women including a teenager lost their lives in a week in October in Okhalkanda block of Nainital.
On October 21, a 13-year-old girl was killed in a leopard attack in Nainital district when she was going to the forest to cut grass. On October 15, an 11-year-old girl was killed by a leopard in Jaspur area in US Nagar district when she was playing with her siblings outside her house. On October 14, a 40-year-old woman was mauled to death by a leopard in Pithoragarh district when she had gone to the forests to cut grass.
