BOY KILLED IN LEOPARD ATTACK IN TEHRI DISTRICT

A 12-year-old boy from Aldi village in Ghansali region of Tehri district was killed in a leopard attack when he was returning home after playing with his friends on Sunday evening, officials said.

Pradeep Chauhan, forest ranger from Balganga range in Tehri, said, “The family members of the deceased boy on finding him missing from home called police after which a joint team from revenue police, Ghansali police station and forest department rushed to the spot. After intensive combing, the team recovered the half-eaten body of the boy, lying in the bushes 500 metres away from his house, at around 2.30 am on Monday morning”.

The deceased boy has been identified as Arnav Chand who was a student of Class 6 at Government Higher Secondary School at Kemaria near his village.

VK Singh, Tehri divisional forest officer, said, “The body of the deceased has been sent for post-mortem at the primary health centre at Pilkhi in district Tehri. The exercise to trap the leopard has begun while the permission has been sought from the senior forest officials for eliminating the leopard .”

Human-animal conflict is on the rise in the state resulting in anger among the villagers who have sought action to remove leopards lurking around the villages in the state.

A four-year-old boy was killed by a leopard in Badeth village under Chakisain Tehsil in the Pauri district in April this year. In February, a 54-year-old manfrom Pasar village under Gaja tehsil in district Tehri was killed by a leopard. The big cat had attacked two persons earlier including a woman from Berni village. Over 450 people have been killed in leopard attacks in Uttarakhand since the state was formed in 2000, according to government data.