In Pimpri-Pendhar village, Pune district, Maharashtra, a leopard killed a 40-year-old woman, Sujata Dhere. This was a report by officials from the state forest department on Wednesday in the Junnar forest division and this is the seventh death from Leopards attacks in this area since March this year.
The attack happened at about 6:00 AM in the morning when Dhere had gone to work in a soy bean plantation located close to sugarcane farms, where the leopard had been resting. Failing to recognize Dhere as its prey, the leopard pounced on her and dragged her body for almost one hundred feet. The extent of the injury which she suffered proved fatal. Offices of the police and the forest department come to the scene soon after the death, and Dhere’s body is taken for postmortem to find out the real cause of the death.
After this attack, the Junnar Forest Division launched its search and capture campaign. A senior official of the division said that they have placed 40 cages and fifty camera traps to capture the leopard, and thermal drones have been used to trace the leopard. As per Smita Rajahans, Assistant Conservator of Forests for the Junnar Forest Division, it is still active, ‘Search operation for the Leopards is being continued along with the capture operation through cage trap in Pimpri-Pendhar village and nearby localities’. He mentioned, “We have installed trap cameras, cages and we have been using thermal drones to track the leopard.”
Rajahans also emphasised the issue of community safety and asked local people to stay strictly bound to safety norms to prevent a repeat of such accidents. Concerning the current rise in the occurrence of leopards, especially in farming areas, efforts are being made to train the community on how to share the natural space with the leopards. As the search goes on, much attention has been paid to ensuring the local population is safe while dealing with the danger.
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