A leopard killed a 10-year-old boy in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district when he had gone to graze goats in a forest area. Police officials told news agency IANS that villagers of Dharampur village rushed to save Sameer Ansari when they heard his shrieks, however, they were not able to make it on time and the boy died.
Station Head Officer (SHO), Hariya, Govind Kumar told IANS, “Hearing the boy’s shrieks, many villagers rushed to the spot with sticks and began making a noise to scare away the big cat. However, by the time the villagers could reach the spot, the leopard had already severed the head of the boy. Later the family members arrived and took him to hospital.”
The victim's father Shafiq Ansari was in Mumbai when his wife told him that their son had been missing since Tuesday afternoon.
The forest department has deployed teams in order to catch the leopard and a team of police and forest officials are patrolling the area, IANS reported.
Forest Range Officer KP Singh said that the villagers have been advised to remain alert so that they could try to protect themselves better from leopards.
DFO Balrampur, Semmaran, told IANS that the forces will take assistance from infra-red drones to catch the big cat. The DFO added that the forest department is also taking other steps to ensure protection to the villagers by increasing patrolling and installing camera traps to monitor any leopard activity.
Recently, two leopards were trapped using IR drones in Bahraich, as reported by IANS.
Earlier in September, a four-year-old girl was mauled to death by a leopard in Jammu & Kashmir’s Udhampur district. Locals discovered the body about 2 kilometres in Upper Bhanjala village of Panchari tehsil in the district, as reported by news agency ANI. The deceased was identified as Tanu.