Leopards ‘kill three children’ in India attacks

Leopards are believed to have killed at least three children in a series of attacks in rural India.

Two were killed in a village in central India – possibly by the same leopard – while a 14-year-old boy died in the country’s north, near the edge of a wildlife conservation area.

With thousands of leopards and more than 1.3 billion people, cat attacks occur dozens of times a year across India.

India’s poorest endure the most attacks, with the most vulnerable living in makeshift shelters without electricity on the edge of forests or sugar cane fields where leopards, and sometimes tigers, can easily find shelter.

“That kind of combination can become a lethal mix,” said Pranav Chanchani of the Tiger Conservation programme at Wwf-india.