leopard ran away into the bushes with an 8 year old child; the bonfire was sitting outside the house

 

Balrampur: An 8-year-old boy was killed by a leopard in Belwa village of Sohelwa forest area in Balrampur district of Uttar Pradesh. After the incident, the District Magistrate has given instructions to catch the leopard as soon as possible. The Forest Department has deployed 4 teams to catch the leopard. Forest Department sources said on Friday that in Belwa village of Tulsipur tehsil late on Thursday evening, Jagdamba Prasad's 8-year-old son Vikas was sitting outside the house warming a bonfire when the leopard hiding in the bushes ran away with him.

'Leopard had cut Vikas's throat'

Sources said that after hearing the scream of the child, the villagers chased him but by then the leopard disappeared into the bushes. He said that about an hour later, the villagers found Vikas's mutilated body in the bushes near a mountain drain. The leopard had slit Vikas's throat. On receiving information about the incident, Divisional Forest Officer Sam Maran M. visited the incident site and took stock of the situation. He told on Friday that 4 teams of Forest Department have been deployed to search for the leopard. He said that 10 cameras and 4 cages have also been installed by the Forest Department to search for the leopard.

Postmortem of the dead body is being done

Sam said that forest department employees of Barabanki and Siddharthnagar districts have been called for help in catching the leopard. Balrampur DM Arvind Kumar Singh said on Friday that instructions have been given to the forest department to capture the leopard. He told that the postmortem of the dead body is being done, as soon as the report is received, financial assistance will be given to the child's family. In another news, a leopard was seen on CCTV camera in a village in Thane district of Maharashtra, after which forest officials have started searching for it.

Residents asked to remain vigilant

An official said on Friday that a CCTV camera installed in the premises of a private company in Kamba-Varap village on the Kalyan-Murbad road had recorded the movements of the wild animal on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. He said that seeing the presence of the leopard, the forest officials started the search. Even after the search operation which continued till 6 am on Thursday morning, the leopard could not be traced. Kalyan Range Forest Officer Raghunath Channe said that residents of Jambul, Ambernath, Nalimbi, Raite, Kamba and Patarpada villages have been appealed to remain alert. (Language)