About a week after a woman was killed by a leopard in Maletha village in Pauri district, the big cat struck again on Sunday, causing mortal injury to a woman in Maletha. A 57-year-old woman was killed by a leopard in the Maletha village of Ekeshwar block in Pauri in broad daylight on Sunday. The woman, Maheshwari Devi, was attacked by the big cat when she was collecting fodder from near a field.
She cried out on being attacked and hearing her cry, women working in the nearby farms shouted and managed to scare the leopard away. The injured woman was then taken to Naugaonkhal hospital where she succumbed to her injury, the Garhwal divisional forest officer Raj Mani Pandey said.
This is the second human fatality from leopard attack in Maletha within a week. It may be recalled that on September 22, a 36-year-old woman was attacked by a leopard while she was collecting fodder. Her body was recovered about half a kilometre away from the village. With locals protesting after the previous human fatality, the chief wildlife warden DVS Khati had declared the leopard a man-eater. The Forest department has licenced a hunter to kill the man eater. However, despite the presence of the hunter and a departmental team in the area, the big cat managed to kill another human in broad daylight at about 12:30 pm.
The Ekeshwar block in the Pauri district has become notorious for continuing human-leopard conflict with 10 persons being killed in leopard attacks since 2012.According to the DFO, one of the reasons for human-leopard conflict in the Maletha area is the shrinking of land area under agriculture combined with the growth of bushes and trees approaching closer to human settlements.
Even though hunting wildlife is illegal, poaching appears to be affecting the prey base of the big cat.With deer, wild boar and other wildlife preferred by leopards being poached by humans, the big cats are turning towards human settlements in search of easy prey like dogs and other domesticated animals. Meanwhile, fear of the big cat is also evident in Pauri district headquarters. Three children have been injured in leopard attacks here so far in the recent past. Due to this the number of people visiting the Ram leela performance here is dwindling as people are afraid to venture outdoors at night.