Girl, 8, killed in leopard attack in UP’s Balrampur

Balrampur (UP), Dec 4 (PTI) A leopard abducted an eight-year-old girl and left behind her mutilated body near the Suhelwa forest of Bhagwanpur Kodar village, a forest official said on Monday.

District Magistrate Arvind Kumar Singh sent SDM Tulsipur and a Forest Department team to the spot and ordered the capture of the leopard.

Chandra Prakash’s daughter Anushka had gone out to play in the village that comes under the Pachperwa development block on Sunday when the leopard, hiding in the bushes, took her away.

Their attention drawn by screaming children, the villagers tried to catch up with the beast but it disappeared with the child, Forest department’s Sub Divisional Officer Manoj Kumar said.

The girl’s mutilated body was found during a search by the forest department.

The DM said that instructions have been given to set up cages and the family will be compensated for the loss after the post mortem.

Divisional Forest Officer Dr Sam Maran M said the department is searching for the leopard with the help of villagers in and around the sugarcane fields and has been installing cameras to trap the animal.

In the last one month, five people, including two girls, have been killed in leopard attacks in the area.

Four teams, composed of experts from Jaunpur, Siddharthnagar, and Barabanki, are constantly visiting villages, but the big cat remains at large.