2 women battle leopard for 10 minutes, and live to tell the tale
PILKHA HEAD RAMESH SINGH SINGH SAID, HALF A DOZEN LEOPARDS, INCLUDING A MOTHER AND HER TWO CUBS, ARE SEEN CLOSE TO THE VILLAGE
DEHRADUN: Sisters-in-law Pooja, 24, and Uma,35, from Pilkha village in Almora district, some 370km from Doon, are more closer than ever after a close brush with death.
In a display of courage, Uma - the elder of the twoalong with Pooja wrestled with bare hands a full grown leopard in a forest for nearly 10 minutes on Sunday.
The women somehow managed to stave off the leopard but sustained multiple injuries in the desperate fight. They are now recuperating at the district hospital in Almora.
Village head Ramesh Singh said the two women had gone to the forest on Sunday to collect fodder. While Pooja was collecting grass, the leopard hiding behind shrubs surfaced.
“And before she could make out anything, the leopard attacked here. Uma, who was standing nearby, rushed to save Pooja.” Ramesh told Hindustan Times over phone on Monday.
In between the struggle, a scythe slipped from Uma’s hand and she had no choice but to fight with bare hands.
The leopard had by then left Pooja and attacked Uma. The sisters-in-law kept at bay the leopard until it scampered into the woods when the two women screamed for help.
Almora is often in news for frequent cases of human-animal conflict. Leopards usually attack women and children as they are easy prey.
Singh said, half a dozen leopards, including a mother and her two cubs, are seen close to the village. “We earlier trapped two leopards after the forest department provided as a cage. Unfortunately, the cages are not available easily,” the village head complained.
Forest officer Sanchita Varma agreed that issuing a cage takes time owing to the permission that has to be sought from the higher-ups. She said the department has put a cage to trap the leopard after the Sunday’s attack on the two women.
“An initial compensation of Rs 5,000 was released for the injured. The forest department will make all efforts to catch the leopard,” Varma told HT.
As many as 2,335 spotted cats were counted in Uttarakhand in the last leopard census held in 2008.
More than 600 people were killed and some 3,100 injured in leopard attacks ever since Uttarakhand came into being in 2000. In the same period, more than 100 leopards were declared as man-eaters.