Leopard mauls 12-yr-old
In yet another leopard attack, a 12-year-old child from Aarey Milk Colony lost his life on Saturday evening. “At around 5.30 pm, Saurav Thakur Yadav and Arihant Yadav had gone to answer nature’s call near their village,” said Uttam More, senior police inspector of Aarey sub-area police station.
“As it was getting dark, Arihant left Saurav alone to get matchsticks so that they could light up a small fire. That was when the leopard appeared from the bushes and took Saurav away,” said Bhagirathi Yadav, uncle of the deceased.
“Arihant got scared and ran home to alert his parents, who in turn took the villagers to search for Saurav,” added Mr More. The villagers found his body lying in a pool of blood around 800 metres from Adarsh Nagar but by the time he was admitted to Bhagwati Hospital, he was declared dead.
Mr Yadav said, “To our shock, we found the leopard sitting with the body, his paws on the child, unwilling to retreat, despite us pelting stones.” The animal left the body only when one of the stones hit its face.
Incidentally, another leopard was trapped on the same day at Khambyacha Pada. “Between 4.30 and 5 am on Saturday, a leopard walked into the cage and forest department officials came to take it to their rescue centre, but the animal that was trapped wasn’t an adult,” said a resident of Khambyacha Pada.
Saturday’s mauling happened at Adarsh Nagar, which is close to Khambyacha Pada, where a leopard attacked a lady on January 6. Similarly, Royal Palms, which is also adjacent to Adarsh Nagar, has reported leopard sightings.
Including Saturday’s trapping, two leopards have been trapped by
the forest department officials within Mumbai limits this month alone — the first being in Maroshi Pada on January 14. Since the leopard attacks started in 2013, Saturday’s trapping is the fifth, with three of them in Maroshi Pada.
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