Leopard mauls 5-year-old girl to death in Shimla
SHIMLA: In a shocking incident, a five-year-old girl was carried off and killed by a leopard in Kanlog locality of Shimla on Thursday evening.
The victim, Priyanka, was the daughter of migrant labourers from Jharkhand and had been staying on a construction site. She was with her grandmother when she was carried off by the leopard from outside their shanty around 8.30pm, Shimla wildlife divisional forest officer (DFO) Krishan Kumar said.
The victim’s grandmother, Sukhmati, said, “I had gone to check on the rice, leaving Priyanka outside when the attack took place. I heard the sound of a bucket falling and saw the animal carry off my granddaughter.”
The victim’s mutilated head was found 200 to 250m away from the construction site. Fearstricken residents immediately raised the alarm and informed the wildlife wing and the police as soon as the girl went missing.
A team of wildlife and forest department officials accompanied by locals launched a search for the feline. However, the operation was suspended due to darkness.
The victim’s remains have been sent to the forensics department to verify her identity and to determine whether more than one leopard had been involved in the attack, the DFO said, adding that the girl’s family will be given a compensation of ₹4 lakh.
Cages and cameras have been set up in the area to trap the big cat, who officials say has become a man-eater.
“Teams have been deployed to search for the missing girl and trap the man-eating leopard. Camera traps and cages have been set up to catch the animal,” said Archana Sharma, the principal chief conservator of the Himachal Pradesh forest department.
The leopard had been sighted several times in Kanlog, Sanjauli, Khalini, Dhalli, Vikas Nagar and Five Benches areas of Shimla at night.
The attack on the five-yearold is not an isolated incident. On June 21, a youngster had been attacked by a leopard outside his house in Krishna Nagar locality, while he was relieving himself. However, the alert man managed to lock the leopard in the bathroom and escaped with minor injuries. Later, the animal was tranqualised and taken away by the forest department.