A seven-year-old boy was attacked and killed by a leopard near forest buffer zone area in Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday, and this comes after a slew of several attacks by leopards on humans in the area.
Shubham, who was being accompanied by his father to go to the field in Laljipurwa village of the area, was attacked on Sunday evening. Villagers raised an alarm and tried to chase the leopard away, but it suddenly came out from the nearby plantation, plowing the land and attacked the child, officials said.
Shubham was immediately rushed to the Khamaria Community Health Centre, where he ultimately died while being treated.
Teams armed with cages and surveillance cameras have been deployed by the forest officials to track and capture the animal, forest officers said. Police said the attack has made villagers in the villages around the Dudhwa buffer zone more worried.
The incident has also upped the death toll linked to big-cat attacks for this year in the area to seven. The officials said, two leopard and one tiger attacks were responsible for six deaths. There have been multiple other other individuals that have been hurt witnessing similar acts.
The villagers protested for immediate action from forest department after the tragedy. Police and local administrative officials stepped in to say that they had stepped up the hunt for the leopard.
Police continued its investigation following the death, which was sent for post mortem examination.