Uttarakhand: Leopard Kills Girl Playing Outside Her House In Bhilangana Range Of Tehri Forest

New Tehri: In a painful incident, a 13-year-old girl was killed in a leopard attack in the Bhilangana range of Tehri forest division in New Tehri on Saturday evening. A forest official confirmed the incident saying that the deceased, identified as Sakshi (13), was attacked by a leopard while she was playing outside her house in Kot Maher Village. The body of the deceased was sent to a mortuary for post-mortem and further legal action was initiated. 

A senior police official stated that this is the third leopard attack in the area in the last four months, which took place hours after Divisional Forest Officer Puneet Tomar had visited the area.

According to the Uttarakhand police, the incident took place at around 4.30 pm on Saturday, when the girl, identified as Sakshi, came out of her house in Kot Maher village to play. The leopard, sitting in an ambush in the bushes, pounced on her and dragged her into the bushes.

On hearing her screams, the girl's neighbours rushed to her rescue and made loud noises to scare the animal. The leopard dragged her for around 50 metres before escaping into the forest, officials said.

Kot Maher's Gram Pradhan Surekha Ghanta said the "man-eater" leopard had killed a nine-year-old girl in Bhaund village on July 22 and a three-year-old boy in Purwal village on September 29.

In view of the incidents, the forest department has deployed two shooters in the area to kill the leopard, and eight cameras have been installed to track its activities. Cages have also been set up in the hopes of catching the leopard.

Vikram Singh Ghanta, a local villager, said people were furious over the killings and scared to venture out of their homes.

According to officials, Sakshi, the third among four siblings, was a student of class nine. Her father works in a hotel in Russia.