Leopard mauls boy in T. Narsipur
This is the fourth case in the last few days in Mysuru district
BENGALURU: A 11-year-old boy was mauled by a leopard in T. Narsipur on Saturday night and the half-eaten body of the boy was traced by the forest personnel on Sunday morning.
The boy is identified as Jayanth, a resident of Horalahalli in T. Narsipur taluk of Mysuru district. The boy, along with his parents, came to visit his aunt living nearby the forest area. He came out of his aunt’s house with a biscuit packet. On the way, a leopard is said to have attacked him and dragged him into the bushes. When Jayanth was missing, a search began and following the trails, forest personnel came across pieces of biscuits but the combing operations in the night went futile.
On resuming combing operations on Sunday morning, forest personnel tracked the half-eaten body of the boy in the wild. Search is on to trap the leopard and arrangements have been made to set up a house like cage to catch the animal. A drone was also pressed into service to trace the leopard. Meanwhile, the villagers staged a protest against the negligence of the forest officials in catching the leopards which had been repeatedly attacking people in the taluk.
Forest officials of T. Narsipur Range have issued an advisory to the villagers asking them not to venture out of their houses after 6 pm, stop defecating in the open at nights as there are cases of livestock and humans being killed by the wild animals.
A leopard killed a 60-year-old woman Siddamma at Kannanayakanahalli of the taluk, a couple of days ago. Siddamma was attacked by the leopard when she went to collect firewood in the backyard of her house on Friday night. The leopard had bitten her face and neck leading to her death.
Earlier, one Meghana was attacked and killed by a leopard at S. Kebbehundi village and Manjunath was also a victim of leopard attack at M.L. Hundi of the taluk. After Meghana was killed by a leopard, forest officials trapped two leopards and shifted them away from the place.
Forest officials said that during this time of the year, leopards mate and give birth to young ones. The chances of the wild cats attacking humans is high which can lead to deaths, they added. observed that in this time of the year, leopards mate and also give birth and chances of human-leopard encounters are more leading to attack on humans leading to deaths.