Leopard mauls teenager

In a third such incident in the past 15 days,a teenager was attacked by a leopard in Umarkhand village in Bhiwandi taluka of Thane on Monday afternoon.

Police said the incident occurred between 12.30 and 1 pm when 14-year-old Akshay Roje,along with his eight-year-old brother Sanjay and a cousin,had taken the cattle for grazing. While they were grazing the animals near a tree,a leopard attacked Roje. His brothers screamed and threw stones at the leopard and shooed it away. They also alerted the villagers,who informed the authorities, said Inspector Kishore Pasalkar of Padgha police station.

Forest officials from Padgha said the boy was first taken to a hospital in Bhiwandi and later shifted to JJ Hospital. He has suffered multiple fractures on the orbit,mandible and maxilla,which are the bones of the mouth and jaw. He will be in hospital for a while,depending on how he responds to treatment, said Dr TP Lahane,Dean,JJ Hospital.

Forest officials visited the victim on Tuesday but were not able to take a statement due to his condition. Prima facie,from the nature of his injuries,it appears that it was a young leopard,because a full grown one would have grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, said Range Forest Officer (Padgha) D S Adakmol.

This is the third such incident in the past 15 days after Durga Ghatal was killed by a leopard in Tansa wildlife sanctuary last Thursday and six-year-old Sanjana Thorat was mauled to death by a leopard near her Mulund home on July 16.

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