Pilibhit: An adult leopard dragged a 32-year-old woman, Sandya Devi, from her cot when she was asleep outside her house around 9 pm on Saturday in village Sahajna under Singhai police station in Kheri district.
The village is located around 3 km from North Nighasan forest range of North Kheri Forest.Hearing her screams for help, the woman’s husband, Mata Prasad (35), who was doing mud flooring work in a thatched structure adjacent to his house rushed to his wife’s rescue but by then the leopard vanished into the dark with the woman. Later, her body was found in a banana field 50 m away. The leopard had consumed the flesh from the victim’s throat.Angry villagers protested by placing the body on the road and refused to hand it over to police for autopsy. When range officer Bhupendra Singh arrived, they surrounded him and would not let him go until their demands were met.As the situation became tense, personnel from five police stations were deployed. SDM Rajiv Nigam and Nighasan CO Shivam Kumar rushed to the village to take stock of the situation. The protesters allowed police to take custody of the body only after they were assured that their demands would be fulfilled.
The range officer, Bhupendra Singh, said eight cages with live baits were placed in the area to trap the leopard. Besides, 16 camera traps were also installed. “We will seek permission from the chief wildlife warden to tranquilise the feline,” he said, adding that a compensation of Rs 5 lakh would be given to the family.This was the third such incident in the area since March 25, when a leopard dragged and killed a seven-year-old girl, Paramjeet Kaur, from her house in Sidhauna village. On April 18, a seven-year-old boy, Dilshad, was playing in a wheat field in Nibauria village when a prowling big cat pounced upon him while his parents were harvesting wheat crop.
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