Mumbai: 16-month-old girl killed in leopard attack in Goregaon

The child, Eitikha Akhilesh Lot, was playing in the courtyard early morning when she was dragged away by the leopard, said family members. The house is located on a hillock, in Unit 15 inside the Aarey Forest area.

Eitikha’s grandfather, Manoj Lot, said: “It was early morning, so not many people were awake. Only the child and her mother were outside. The leopard jumped out from the bushes, got hold of her, and ran away. The mother had her back turned to the child. She started shouting for help as soon as she realised what had happened, and everybody rushed out of their houses,” he said.

He said family members and neighbours went to the forest to look for the child, and forest officials were also contacted.
Since it is a dense forest area, the search operation was difficult.

After over an hour, some neighbours spotted the child. Rescuers said the leopard was still sitting there.

“We found her about 300 metres away from her house. The leopard was still sitting beside her. We could see that the child had sustained serious injuries on her neck and shoulders. We drove the leopard away, and rushed the child to hospital,” said Wasim Athania, a neighbour.

“The condition of the roads is one of the reasons why we reached the hospital late. The child was still alive when we rescued her,” said Imran Iqbal Udar, another neighbour.

Members from the Lot family said while the child was taken to the hospital, the leopard returned to their compound. Neighbours said the leopard was spotted two days back too.

Meanwhile, forest officials said they had installed 12 camera traps and a trap cage within a 1-km radius of the incident.

“The process of inspection is ongoing and we have directed our teams who will be visiting all the tribal hamlets that are located inside the Aarey Forest to make them aware of the incident,” said G Mallikarjun, director of Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Chief Conservator of Forests.