IN THE third incident of a death in human leopard conflict in Pune district this year, a six-year-old girl was mauled to death next to a sugarcane field in Shirur taluka on Sunday morning. On Monday morning, one of the dozen trap cages installed by the Forest Department after the incident, captured a female leopard suspected to be the one that attacked the girl, officials said. The incident took place around 9.30 am on Sunday in Dhome Mala area of Pimparkhed village of Shirur taluka located around 80 kilometers from Pune City. Forest Officials have identified the deceased girl as Shivanya Shailesh Bombe (5). At the time of the incident, Shivanya was on her way to give water to her grandfather who was working in the field. Officials said that Shivanya's father works for a private company near Pune while the family also has a farm in Pimparkhed. Initial probe suggests that a leopard who was hiding in the nearby sugarcane field, suddenly attacked the girl inflicting injuries on her neck and hands. Upon witnessing the attack, her grandfather raised an alarm and some other people working in a nearby field also rushed to the location. But before they could reach, the leopard had dragged her to a distance before leaving her. She was rushed to a government hospital in Manchar where she was pronounced dead. Forest Department teams were immediately deployed after receiving information from the locals. A forest department official said, "The villagers and kin of the deceased held an agitation after the incident and demanded permanent solution to the human-leopard conflict. They held a road blockade and stopped the forest department vehicles from moving. In response to the incident, we installed 11 trap cages, five trap cameras in the area and also deployed patrolling teams with tranquilizer dart guns. On Monday morning, one of the cages trapped a female leopard aged between five to six years. Based on initial observations, we believe that this is the same animal which had caused the fatal attack on Sunday morning. The leopard has been sent to the Manikdoh leopard rehabilitation centre." This is the third human death in cases of human leopard conflict in Pune district this year. Earlier this year in April, an 85-year-old woman was killed in an incident of leopard attack in a village in Shirur taluka. In the last week of September, a six year old boy who was studying in the open space in front of house in the village of Junnar taluka was killed by a leopard. The year 2024 witnessed eight deaths in the incidents of human leopard conflict in Pune district with five of those deaths being that of children. These were the second highest toll reported in a year in the last 20 years. After the back to back incidents of human leopard conflict last year, the forest department had issued a Red Alert for 13 villages in a five square kilometer area in Junnar taluka. People in these villages were asked not to step out before 9 am and after 5 pm. Subsequently 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. Considering various driving factors of human leopard conflict in the region, the forest department has focussed on creating awareness and sensitising villagers. With a growing leopard population in the Junnar forest area in Pune leading to increased incidents of human leopard conflict in the region, 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 leopard as a targeted birth control method to bring down the rate of increase of leopard population.
