4-Year-Old Girl Dies in Leopard Attack in Shirur

A Leopard Appeared and Dragged the Girl to Nearby Sugarcane Field Amid Her Mother Shouting for Help

- Gayatri Vajpeyee

PUNE: Due to the growing leopard population in Junnar, it may have breached its leopard carrying capacity due to which we are witnessing cases of human-leopard conflict outside Junnar in the past two to three years as spillover, according to a wildlife expert from the Wildlife Institute of India.

Ankit Kumar, scientist, Wildlife Institute of India, said, "The leopard population is growing and possibly, has breached the carrying capacity in Junnar. Hence, leopards might be expanding their territory to other areas, especially areas with higher sugarcane cultivation. Hence, human-leopard encounters are increasing in other areas as well."

According to the information shared by the forest department, Raksha Nigam, 4, from Pimpalsuti village, Shirur tehsil, Pune district, was playing in front of her house with her mother sitting nearby when a leopard suddenly attacked the little girl, dragging her inside the sugarcane field.

A search was initiated and after two hours, the search team found Raksha's body in a nearby sugarcane field with the head severed from the rest of the body. Seeing this, the parents went numb with shock even as Raksha's body was sent to the rural hospital in Shirur for a post-mortem.