Following leopard attacks that left minor girl dead, woman injured in separate incidents, Gujarat village on edge

Indian Express

2 days ago

A week after a 9-year-old girl was allegedly dragged away and killed by a leopard, and three days after a 40-year-old woman was injured in another such attack, a village in Gujarat continues to be on edge with forest department teams of two other districts deployed in the area to locate the big cat.
The officers from Banaskantha and Kevadia districts are also trying to ascertain if the attacks in Kolvan village of Sagbara taluka in Narmada district were carried out by the same animal or two different leopards.
The village has seen multiple protests by residents, prompting the elected representatives to get involved in the matter.
The forest department, meanwhile, has deployed trap cages and cameras and invited teams of experts to help catch the leopard.
The first incident occurred on May 27, when the minor girl, Shreyal Vasava, was allegedly dragged from outside her house and mauled by a leopard.
The second incident took place on Sunday when a woman, Bebi Vasava, was allegedly attacked by a leopard while she was sleeping in her hut in her farm. Though she was rescued by villagers who had arrived at the scene on hearing her screams, she suffered injuries on her hands and legs besides losing a part of her right ear.
Following protests in Kolvan village, forest officials handed over a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the deceased minor.
Range Forest Officer (RFO) Sagbara Abhay Singh told The Indian Express, 'We have installed 10 trap cages and trap cameras, and also taken help of drone cameras. A special tranquilisation team from Banaskantha, which has helped rescue leopards that stray into revenue areas, has been roped in. We also have one specialist team from the zoo from Kevadia that is helping us understand the behaviour of the wild leopards…'
Singh said the forest officials are first addressing the question if the two attacks have been carried out by the same leopard. Singh said, 'The first question is whether the two leopards are same or different. We are trying to ascertain the same by examining pug marks from 550 periphery areas and zeroing down on the routes that the leopard might have taken… We are hopeful that in the next couple of days, we will be able to rescue it.'
Singh said since the girl and the woman were attacked within a space of two kilometers, it was likely that the leopard in both the cases is the same.
'The woman, who is the second victim, is also of a small build like the 9-year-old. In leopard attacks, the size of the victim is also of consequence. There is a big possibility that it could be the same leopard but we are trying to confirm this through examination and probe. We have been regularly shifting the cages to increase the chance of the leopard being trapped,' Singh added.
Even though the forest department is confident of catching the leopard in a few days, the villagers don't share the optimism. Anil Valvi, the brother of Bebi, said, 'It has been over a month since the leopard attacks have increased in the area and a single person venturing out close to sunset is risky now … We all are scared. The forest department is setting up cages but leopards do not walk into traps these days. They must tranquilise and catch the leopard…'
Bharuch MP Mansukh Vasava, who visited Bebi on Tuesday, said a 'taskforce' should be formed to deal with the human-leopard conflict in the region. 'I will appeal to the government to form a special taskforce to tackle the problem of the leopard-human conflict. Now, more leopards are straying into the areas of human habitation from the forests and steps must be taken to resolve the problem,' said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.