Odisha: Leopard Preys on 8-yr-old Boy Before Mother's Eyes

Bhubaneswar: In a tragic incident, a leopard on Monday preyed on an eight-year-old boy when he was playing in the backyard of his house at Katingapali village near Sunabeda sanctuary in Odisha’s Nuapda district.

According to reports, the wildcat sneaked into the backyard of the victim’s house in the morning and pounced upon the boy when he was playing. Within seconds, the animal disappeared into the jungle carrying the boy in its jaws.

All this happened before the eyes of the boy’s mother who was busy doing her morning period chores.  After hearing her screams for help, the villagers gathered at the place, but it was too late.

The forest department officials immediately launched a search operation. After hours of search, they recovered the skeleton of the victim.

In another incident, a Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) was sighted in Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary in Sambalpur district.

The big cat was caught in the camera traps installed in the sanctuary, sources in the state forest department said on Monday.

“The feline animal was caught in the camera traps installed at Debrigarh. It is in a good shape. The tiger usually keeps itself confined to the core area of the sanctuary in the day and comes out at night. It was seen moving on the kutcha road in the sanctuary after evening,” said a source in the Forest department.

The tiger was first spotted at the sanctuary on December 1, 2022. A group of tourists had spotted the young sub-adult tiger at the entrance of the sanctuary. It is the first incident in the last six years when a tiger was sighted at Debrigarh, sources said.

The big cat was sighted for the second time at the sanctuary, located close to Hirakud dam, in February this year.

The forest department claimed that the tiger had migrated to Debrigarh from a forest in neigbouring Chhattisgarh. The big cat has made the sanctuary as its second home, added the department.