A nine-year-old tribal boy was killed by a leopard in Gujarat’s Netrang taluka of Bharuch district on Sunday. Forest officials set up cages across the area and on Monday trapped a three-year-old female leopard suspected to be involved.
Officials say Bharuch’s 25,000-hectare forest patch holds “hundreds of leopards”. Last year, another minor boy was similarly killed in the taluka.
According to the 2022 leopard census, Bharuch district has over 105 leopards in around 25,000 hectares of forest. Surat district has 104 leopards in 27,000 hectares, while Tapi has 75 leopards across about 90,000 hectares.
The incident took place in Koliapada village, where Sukhdev and his wife were working in a standing sugarcane field on November 23. Their children — Ritik (9) and his younger sister — were playing nearby.
Forest officials said a hungry leopard, noticing movement in the tall crop, hid and then suddenly attacked the victim’s neck from behind, trying to drag him away. Hearing his sister Sangita scream, Sukhdev and other labourers rushed to the spot and tried to free the boy using sugarcane sticks. The leopard eventually released Ritik and fled into the fields.
Ritik was taken to Rajpipla Civil Hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival. Labourers immediately informed the forest department.
Netrang Range Forest Officer Hitesh Jadav and his team reached the spot, found pugmarks, and set up three cages in the surrounding area. A hen with meat was placed inside one cage as bait. The leopard was captured on Monday and taken to a shelter facility.
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On Monday afternoon, the village held Ritik’s funeral procession, attended by large numbers of residents. Village leaders issued an alert advising families to keep children away from standing sugarcane crops. Forest officials urged farm labourers to work in groups, maintain vigil in fields, and avoid unnecessary movement, especially at night.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Jadav said, “We have caught the female leopard aged around 3 years from the area a day after the incident. We have also started procedures for victim compensation. An amount of Rs 10 lakh will be deposited in the victim’s parents’ bank account in the next couple of days. We are waiting for the post-mortem report from Rajpipla Civil Hospital. Primarily, the grip around the neck of the victim by the leopard was deep, which may have caused damage to a vein, and it may have resulted in the death.”
He added, “Last year, the death of a minor had taken place due to a leopard attack in Netrang taluka, where the victim was present in the agricultural fields, and a leopard attacked him suddenly from nearby bushes. We are regularly carrying out awareness drives among the villagers in different villages to take precautions while working in the fields and going out of their homes at night.”
Kamal Saiyed is a senior Correspondent for The Indian Express, providing extensive, on-the-ground coverage from Surat and the broader South Gujarat region and the Union territories of Daman, Diu & Dadra Nagar Haveli. With a reporting career at the publication spanning back to 2007, he has established himself as a high-authority voice on the industrial, social, and political pulse of one of India’s fastest-growing urban hubs.
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Crime beat: Armed with a good source network Saiyed has been able to bring out the human side of crime stories in his region ... Read More
