Leopard mauls 5-yr-old girl to death in Nashik

A five-year-old girl was mauled to death by a leopard near her house in Tarukhedle village of Niphad tehsil on Monday night.

Sources said that the deceased Guddi Handge was playing outside her house near a sugarcane field, where her father Ashok Handge works as a labourer.

The leopard which was prowling in the thicket, pounced upon the girl and dragged her into the sugarcane field around 8.30 pm. He parents noticed the attack and began shouting. Neighbours and other villagers ran into the fields shouting loudly to scare the leopard.

After an hour long search with lighted kerosene ‘mashal’ and battery torches, they found her bloodied shirt. A little further the injured Guddi was found. By the time she was taken out, she breathed her last. The body was sent for autopsy to Niphad rural hospital.

The farm belongs to one Sharad S Jagtap in gat No 392 of Tarukhedle village. A day earlier, the wildlife authorities had caught their 18th leopard in Chehadi Khurd village, nearby. The villagers phoned up the wildlife officials, and senior officials arrived in the night and did their investigations.

The villagers have demanded cages to be put up at all places, which are known haunts of leopards.

Farmer and social worker Sharad Baburao Jagtap from Lasalgaon said that thirsty wild animals were prowling human habitations for water during the hot summer. “The government should make arrangements to provide water in the forests and avoid such tragic beasthuman conflict,” he said.

The villagers have demanded cages to be put up at all places, which are known haunts of leopards