Representative image of a leopard in cage.
Credit: Maharashtra Forest Department/Wildlife SOS
Jaipur: A leopard was beaten to death by villagers after it attacked a 55-year-old man in Udaipur district of Rajasthan on Friday, police said.
The incident occurred in Sayra area in the early hours when the leopard attacked Devaram's cattle outside his house, they said.
According to police, when he opened the gate to check on the cattle, the leopard attacked him, leaving him injured.
Hearing his cries for help, the villagers quickly gathered and surrounded the area where the leopard was hiding. They started hitting the animal with sticks and other objects, leading to its death on the spot, police said.
The injured is undergoing treatment at the district hospital, they added.
The area is located about 25 km from where forest and police teams have been searching for a man-eater leopard over the past several days.
However, authorities are yet to confirm if the dead leopard is the same one being tracked.
Alarmed over the rising number of deaths, forest authorities issued an order on October 1 to shoot down the man-eater leopard. The order came after a 55-year-old woman, Kamla Kanwar, was mauled to death on that morning outside her house in Suawaton ka Gudha when she was feeding fodder to livestock.
The permission was granted under conditions that an attempt should be made to tranquilise or trap the leopard. However, in case the animal cannot be tranquilised or trapped, its correct identification should be ensured before killing the animal.
In Udaipur district, humans were hunted by leopards on September 18, 19, 20, 25, 28 and 30. In the above incidents, the place of attack by leopards is Gram Panchayat Chhali, Bagdunda, Majavad and Madar under the jurisdiction of Deputy Forest Conservator Udaipur (North), the order said.
Concerned over the leopard attack and growing resentment among the locals, the forest authorities placed cages, installed camera traps and sought help from the Indian Army to track the leopard last month. As a result, three leopards were captured from different places.
In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich, people have been grappling with wolf terror with incidents of attack on humans seeing a spike from July 17 during the rainy season. Till September 2, eight people, including seven children, have died in these attacks while about 36, including women, children and elderly, have been injured.