Amid panic over big cat attacks, leopard hacked to death in Udaipur village

“The leopard attacked the farmer who reached the enclosure after hearing his cows’ cries. It clenched both his hands in its jaws and attacked him several times with its claws. Hearing Devaram’s cries, other village residents gathered there and killed the leopard with an axe,” Saira police station SHO Praveen Jugtawat said, adding that residents feared that the leopard was a man-eater.

Devaram is currently undergoing treatment at Udaipur’s Maharana Bhupal Government Hospital and his condition is said to be stable, police said.

This comes at a time when rising leopard attacks near Gogunda in Udaipur’s forests have caused a panic among residents. Seven people have been killed in such attacks since September 10, prompting the forest authorities to issue shoot-at-sight orders.

Saira is 25 kms away from Gogunda.

Meanwhile, sources from the forest department said that although investigation is ongoing, this leopard is unlikely to be the same as the one responsible for the attacks at Gogunda.

“Usually, leopards don’t travel this far and hence it may not be the same leopard,” one official said on the condition of anonymity. “We’re working every day to catch the man-eater.”

In the case of the other leopard, as anger grew among locals, forest officials had put up cages at six different places. Two cages were transported from Rajsamand district and two were newly built in the city to increase the chances of catching the leopard. Along with this, six cameras had been installed to keep an eye on the movement of the big cat.