The deepening human-animal conflict in this Himalayan State has taken its toll with another woman being mauled to death by a big cat on Saturday night.
The 40-year-old woman, identified as Maya, was killed by a leopard in the wee hours at Rampur lalpani area under lansdowne forest division on Saturday.
As expected, angry villagers complained that despite repeated reminders to the Forest Department, the authorities had failed to take any action to ensure protection of people from such incidents of human-animal conflict in the area.
After the woman was killed by the animal on Saturday early morning, the villagers directed their angers specially toward officials of the Kotdwar forest range and Saneh forest range for not reaching the spot on time despite being informed much earlier about the incident. What’s more, the angry villagers did not even allow the body to be lifted from the site of the incident.
However, after Kotdwar sub divisional magistrate Rakesh Tewari, lansdowne MlA Dalip Rawat, district Panchayat vice chairperson Suman Kotnala and local police assured the locals that their demand will be submitted to the district administration, the people agreed to let the body be taken for post mortem.
Meanwhile, the lansdowne divisional forest officer claimed the staff of Kotdwar and Saneh forest ranges had reached the
site of the incident as soon as they had received information about the same.
It is pertinent to mention here that Maya, wife of Rajendra, a resident of Rampur lalpani, was probably attacked by the leopard when she came out of her house to answer the call of nature on early Saturday. On being attacked by the big cat, the woman cried out for help even as the leopard carried her further away from her home. The family members and other villagers came out of their houses in an attempt to rescue her but the darkness had prevented them from doing much. They later found the body in an agricultural field near by with a wound on her neck.
lansdowne divisional forest officer Mayank Shekhar Jha told this correspondent that Rs 50,000 monetary compensation has been provided to the family of the deceased on Saturday itself while the rest of the ex-gratia amount — Rs 2.50 lakh will be given to the bereaved family on Monday.
Jha said that there is no plan to seek approval for getting the leopard declared a man-eater right now. However, the forest division has sought permission from the higher officials for installing a cage in the area. One cage has already been installed in the area in an attempt to capture the big cat. A camera trap has also been fixed apart from which the department staff have also been deployed to keep a vigil in the area. Regarding the latest incident, he denied that the department staff reached the incident spot many hours late and claimed that the staff had reached the spot as soon they had received information about a woman being killed by a leopard.
It is pertinent to mention here that earlier, before the woman being killed by a leopard on Saturday, three persons have been injured in separate attacks by leopards in this area this year. The residents of Ratanpur, Kumbhichor, lalpani and Saneh state that they have been living in fear of human-wildlife conflict involving leopards for quite some time now.