Friday morning descended into panic for residents of Parijat building in Bhayander east after a leopard strayed into a residential complex and attacked seven people, including a woman and her two daughters, before being rescued following a nearly seven-hour operation. The incident is the latest in a spate of leopard attacks and sightings reported from Maharashtra’s expanding urban and peri-urban areas in recent months.
Police said the leopard entered a first-floor flat around 8 am and attacked 55-year-old woman Bharti MukeshTak and her two daughters -Anjali Mukesh Tak, 22 and Khusi Mukesh Tak, 19 while they were sleeping. Trio suffered injuries while Anjali sustained serious wounds to her face and legs and she was shifted to KEM Hospital in Mumbai as her condition was described as critical. Six others injured in the incident are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Bhayander.
Other injured are identified as Dipu Bhaumik, Rakesh Yadav, 50, Chhaganlal Bagreja, 48, and Shyampratap Sahani, 19.
The leopard’s presence in the densely populated locality triggered panic, with residents rushing indoors as police, fire brigade personnel and forest officials rushed to the spot. Senior inspector Dhiraj Koli of Navghar police station said around 100 police personnel from Navghar and neighbouring police stations were deployed, along with fire brigade teams and officials from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).
“The area was cordoned off and announcements were made asking residents to shut their doors and remain indoors to avoid any untoward incident,” Koli said.
According to police, before entering the Tak family’s flat (No. 101), the leopard had attacked four people in the surrounding area. When the leopard entered Bharti’s flat, her brother managed to flee away. Leopard attacked on Bharti and Khusi and both sustained injuries but managed to flee away from the house and Anjali stuck inside the room as she was sleeping. The leopard attacked on Anjali before she realised anything and suffered severe injuries on her face and legs. Anjali then managed to jump on the window fitted box iron grill. She locked herself between a glass window and iron grill until the fire brigade reached on the spot. The fire brigade broke the iron grill and pulled her out safely, said a police officer. Anjali is out of danger but she is critical and recuperating in the KEM hospital.
Forest department teams deployed nets across the flat’s doors and windows, and the leopard was finally captured around 3 pm. It was later shifted to the SGNP.
Local MLA Narendra Mehta visited the spot and raised concern over the incident. “It is surprising how a leopard came into the city. It is a busy place in Bhayander where vehicles and public movement continue round the clock. The periphery of the national park is around 3 kilometres from the incident spot. The fire brigade rescued the parents and daughter,” Mehta said.
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He added, “Strong preventive measures should be taken to stop leopards from straying into the city. Forest department needs to keep proper vigilance and patrolling in the area. Our demand to the Maharashtra government is, the injured should get free medical treatment and adequate compensation.”
Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik also inspected the site and questioned the response time of forest officials. “Leopard entered the area at 8 am and till 10 am officials of the forest department did not reach the spot. The forest department should install CCTV cameras in the forest area so they could track leopards and reach spots as soon as such incidents occur. The forest department should take their responsibility seriously,” Sarnaik said.
The Bhayander incident comes amid a spate of leopard sightings and attacks in Maharashtra’s expanding urban and peri-urban areas. Over the past few months leopards have been repeatedly spotted in cities such as Nashik, Pimpri Chinchwad, Thane and Aurangabad, highlighting the growing overlap between wildlife habitats and human settlements.
These rising encounters have been attributed to rapid urbanisation along forest fringes, shrinking green buffers and increased movement of leopards through natural corridors abutting cities.
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These incidents had forced the Maharashtra government to take note, with Maharashtra Forest Minister Ganesh Naik on December 10 announcing that the state will be releasing goats into forests to prevent the animals from entering human settlements in search of prey.
Naik made the statement during a calling attention motion on leopard attacks, which was discussed at the legislature’s Winter Session in Nagpur.
“If four people are killed in leopard attacks, the state must pay Rs 1 crore as compensation. So, I told officials, instead of paying compensation after deaths, release goats worth Rs 1 crore into the forest so that leopards do not venture into human habitats,” Naik said, while replying to the motion raised by NCP(SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad. A majority of such cases are concentrated in the Pune, Nashik and Ahilyanagar districts.
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