Human-leopard conflict: 4-year-old boy killed in Shirur, 9th fatality in Junnar division

Around 6.30pm on Friday, while he was playing near his house in the village, a leopard came from a sugarcane field located nearby and attacked him. His grandfather Pandurang Tembhekar raised an alarm and tried to rescue him. But the leopard dragged the boy about 400 metres into the sugarcane farm. Later, his dead body was found in the area.

After receiving information, a team of forest department officials rushed to the spot. Forest officials confirmed the boy was killed in the leopard attack. Shivtej’s body was taken to the government hospital in Shirur.

Deputy Conservator of Forest (Junnar division) Amol Satupte visited the location where the incident took place.
Satpute spoke to the villagers and forest department team and gave instructions to install trap cages and use drone cameras for tracing the leopard.

Accordingly, 22 trap cages and 10 camera traps were installed at different locations and thermal drones were pressed into service to trace the movements of the leopard.

Forest officials also noted the grievances of the villagers during the gram sabha held at a temple in Mandavgan Pharata in view of the leopard attack. Forest officials informed the villagers about the solar compound scheme and use of neck belts as preventive measures.

Forest officials said leopards are present in considerable numbers in the areas surrounding Ghod, Kukadi and Bhima rivers. So it is risky, particularly for the children and senior citizens, to move out in these areas after 6pm.

Last month, a seven-year-old boy, identified as Vansh Rajkumar Singh, was killed by a leopard in the same area in Shirur taluka of Pune district. Vansh belonged to a family of migrant labourers hailing from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.

The family moved to the area a few months ago to work at Wagheshwar Gul Udyog, a jaggery production unit in Mandavgan Pharata. Officials said the family’s house was located near a sugarcane field on Gokulnagar Dagadwadi Road. Vansh is believed to have left the house and run towards the sugarcane field, where the leopard attacked him.