Seemingly ‘man-eater’ leopard kills two in Dahod of Central Gujarat

Dahod: In a repeat like incident of 2003, a seemingly ‘man-eater’ leopard has killed two girls and injured another woman in last 48 hours in Baria forest division of Dahod district of central Gujarat where another such beast was gunned down almost 15 years ago when it had killed over half a dozen people in and around the same area.

The leopard killed 11 year old Jyotasana S Parmar today afternoon at around 2pm in Punakot forest close to her native Khalata where she had gone to graze her goats and cattle. The same leopard had attacked and killed another girl Asmita G Vasaya (10), a resident of Dumka in nearby Kotambi forest yesterday morning where she had gone with a group of women to pick fire-wood. The leopard had also attacked and injured a woman in Kotambi yesterday.

DFO of Baria division Janak L Zala today said that a total of 7 cages have been kept in the area to capture the beast which has seemingly turned man-eater.

‘It is the same leopard as the places of occurrence are all close-by and the beast has applied same modus operandi for killing the two girls. It sucked blood from the body of both by piercing its teeth in their necks and also eaten up parts of the chest area in both the cases. We are sure that the beast would be caged soon but if the need arises and the higher authorities allowed it can even be gunned down for people’s safety,’ he said adding that such extreme measure in all likelihood won’t be needed.

He said that all the places fall under Danpur taluka and were in close vicinity of Ratanmahal forests where as per the last 2016 wildlife census, around 48 leopards live.

Zala said that in 2003, another leopard had attacked people in similar area and had killed 7 to 8 of them after which with the permission of authorities it was gunned down.

DeshGujarat