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Journalism of Courage
A 40-year-old woman, Sujata Ravindra Dere, was killed in a leopard attack in Pimpri Pendhar village, Junnar taluka, Pune district, early Wednesday morning. This incident marks the seventh death from human-leopard conflict in the Junnar forest division since March and the second in this village.
The attack occurred around 6 am in Pimpri Pendhar village, around 100 km from Pune. Forest officials said Sujata Ravindra Dere (40) was attacked when she had gone to attend nature’s call in a field next to her house. The leopard emerged from a soybean field and attacked her. Hearing her screams, her husband came running and tried to intervene, but the leopard dragged her away into the field,” said Deputy Conservator of Forest (Junnar Division) Amol Satpute.
Satpute said the villagers informed the forest department and teams were mobilised in response. “Sujata was found dead in the field with multiple serious injuries. We have beefed up patrolling in the area, deployed 30 trap cages, 15 camera traps and drone cameras to find and capture the leopard,” he said.
After angry villagers confronted the local forest department and police officials who were visiting the area, leaders and officials assured them of adequate measures being taken to minimise the impact of human-leopard conflict, forest officials said.
Satpute said, “Considering the large number of leopards in the vicinity of Kukdi and Ghod River, the Junnar forest department is appealing to residents of Junnar, Shirur, Ambegaon and Khed talukas to take precautions like installing bright lights around houses and in fields where possible, completely clearing the grass cover on both sides of the road around the houses and fields, use toilets in the house, avoid stepping out before dawn and after sunset as far as possible, and if unavoidable, carry a flashlight and a sturdy stick.”
Before this, five deaths in human-leopard conflict have been reported since March this year. In September, a nine year old boy was killed in Junnar’s Tejewadi village. In August, a woman (55) was killed and a farmer (60) was injured in two separate attacks by leopards in Shirur taluka, which falls under Junnar forest division. In April, an 18-month girl Sanskruti Kulekar was killed in a leopard attack in Shiroli Khurd village in Junnar taluka. In May, Rudra Fatale (8), whose family was visiting relatives in Junnar’s Kolwadi, was fatally attacked by a leopard, and Nanubai Sitaram Kadale (60) was killed by a leopard when she was working on her bajra farm in Pimpri Pendhar. In June, Yash Suresh Gaikwad (11) was killed by a leopard in Dahiwadi village, Shirur taluka.
Due to the growing leopard population in Junnar forest, the state forest department has sent a proposal to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to sterilise 36 female and 11 male leopards as a targeted birth control method to bring down the rate of population growth.
In June this year, Pune District Collector had notified over 230 villages from four talukas of Pune district— Junnar, Ambegaon, Shirur and Khed — as prone to disaster due to repeated incidents of human-leopard conflicts in which multiple deaths and several serious injuries were reported.
