india

Updated: Apr 15, 2019 19:36 IST

Villagers in Bihar killed a leopard after it attacked and injured eight people at Telhara village in Muzaffarpur district of Patna state, here on Monday.

The leopard attacked a farmer, Rajender Sahni, who suffered multiple injuries on his upper limbs and back. He was admitted to the critical care ward of the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH) in adjoining Darbhanga district.

“Sahni’s condition is stable,” said Dr. Baleshwar Sagar, deputy medical superintendent, DMCH.

The other seven injured — Ganesh Sahni, Sunni Kumar, Dinesh Sahni, Amarjit Sahni, Jitan Sahni, Rajiya Devi and Putul Kumari — had reportedly fled on way to DMCH, fearing police action.

District forest officer Sudhir Kumar Karn said, a police complaint would be lodged against the villagers who killed the leopard. Killing a leopard is an offence under the Wildlife Protection Act. The fear of incurring the wrath of the police had prompted the villagers to abandon the village.

Earlier, armed villagers chased the leopard and cornered the animal around a local pond and killed it. Later a team of forest officials took the leopard’s body into custody and conducted a postmortem examination.

Officials believed that the leopard had strayed into the village from adjoining Singhwara block of Darbhanga district, close to the foothills of Himalayan nation Nepal, in the wee hours of Monday.

Senior superintendent of police Manoj Kumar said that the incident had sparked off panic at Katra and Gaighat blocks of the district, having borders with Darbhanga.