In another incident of fatal human-animal conflict, a 50-year-old woman was mauled to death by a leopard at village Bhatoli of Srinagar Tehsil in Pauri district on Sunday evening.
Informed of the incident, the sub-divisional magistrate Tehsil Srinagar, revenue police and regular police officers rushed to the spot. Forest department officials followed suit. The Garhwal divisional forest officer has requested the chief wildlife warden on Monday to declare the leopard a man-eater .
Rajeshwari Devi, wife of Dharam Singh Kantura, resident of village Bhatoli near Devalgarh of Khirsu block, was killed by the leopard when she was working in her agricultural field 200 meters away from her residence on Sunday evening. As the woman screamed others working in the field gathered and raised alarm. The villagers rushed in to find that the beast had fled the spot with the severed head of the victim. The severed head was traced on Monday.
The death of the woman has left the villagers scared. They sought security from the forest department and the district administration. They later sounded angry over no worthwhile measure being taken either by the forest department or the district administration to secure them from the prowling beasts.
Sub-divisional magistrate Srinagar Garhwal Raza Abbas said that three leopards had been spotted near the incident site. The postmortem of the deceased has been conducted, he added.
SDO, Garhwal Forest Division Subodh Kala said that the department was waiting for the nod from the chief warden wild life to kill the leopard. Once the nod comes an authorised hunter will be deputed. Kala further said that 23 persons have been so far killed by leopards in the area under Garhwal forest division since April 2012. Five leopards were killed and four were caged so far, he added.