A five-year-old boy has been killed by a Leopard in the Bijnor District of Uttar Pradesh on Monday 16 December 2019. The boy, idntified as Chetan was playing outside his house with his sister, Nishu, four, in the village of Prempuri when both children were attacked by the animal, which bit Nishu on the neck before carrying Chetan away. A search by local villagers was able to locate the boy the same day, but his partially eaten body was found on the following day. The was the latest in a series of Leopard attacks in the area, which have been linked by local people to a rising Leopard population. On Sunday 15 December another five-year-old boy, named Rohan, was attacked by a Leopard in the village of Akbarpur Chauganva, but was chased off by family members. On Tuesday 10 December a two-year-old boy was snatched from a Bullock cart in the village of Jamalpur Dhikali, although this animal was also driven off by family members. A further three attacks on children were recorded in Bijnor District in November.
A Leopard with a Monkey kill in the Kabini National Park, India. Small Primates are an important food source for Leopards, which can lead to them attacking Humans. Wikimedia Commons.
Leopards are considered to be Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, with the Indian subspecies, Panthera pardus fusca,
considered to be particularly vulnerable due to India's rapidly rising
Human population, which has resulted in agriculture and other Human
activities expanding into many former wilderness areas. For this reason
the Indian Forest Service usually try
to relocate Leopards that come into conflict with Humans to more remote
areas, preferably within national parks, though the extent to which
local people co-operate is variable.
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