Anurag Bende

Sunil Limaye

Vitthal Dhokate

Pooja Bhale

farmer

Over 48 hours after a six-year-old boy lost his life following a leopard attack at Khamundi village in Junnar, forest officials are still clueless about the big cat.Now, to speed up the hunt before the animal decides to hit human settlement again, the forest department is planning to set up a quick response team (QRT) consisting of local villagers in order to increase vigil in the area. “Forest department staff, along with local villagers, will be keeping vigil and carry search operations to find the hiding animal. So far, there is no clarity behind the purpose of the attack and till the animal is captured, the additional staff will remain in that area,” said chief conservator of forestsAs the leopard did not eat any flesh of the boy, forest officials are ruling out the possibility of the leopard being a man-eater. Now, they are taking the help of conservation experts to understand the motive behind the attacks on children.Early on Friday morning, the leopard attacked two children in Khamundi village. When local people called the forest officials, a search operation was carried out and Pravin Devram Dhudh-wade’s body was found nearly two kilometres from his house. Initially, the forest officials were suspecting that the leopard might have attacked the children out of hunger but the body was unmarked. “We are not sure if the leopard attacked out of hunger. Since there is a fear among locals, we have increased our vigil and placed cages to catch the animal,” said divisional forest officerand added that the forest officials were planning to take the help of nature conservationists, who could explain the psychology of the leopard and if this is a case of human- leopard conflict. According to conservation experts, it might be a case of accidental killing and not incidental killing.“The big cats generally kill prey to eat. However, it looks like a case of accidental killing as in such cases, the leopard or other animals from the cat family attack the humans, particularly small children when they are squatting or bending, thinking of them as their prey. However, after killing them, they realise that it is not their meal and therefore not eat it,” conservation biologisttold MirrorHowever, according to her, it might also be a human-leopard conflict due to deforestation in the area. “Leopards are territorial animals and it searches for prey in the same territory. Due to the increasing deforestation, these animals are facing scarcity of food and since the human locality is now settling near jungles, they are attacking humans,” she explained.On the other hand, Vidya Athreya, wildlife biologist and research associate with the centre for wildlife studies and wildlife conservation society, said, “This attack is a very abnormal activity as it appears that the attack was not for a meal. I know many cases where a leopard has attacked cattle but when thehas gone to rescue them, the big cat has not attacked the farmer. It is strange that the leopard came near the humans, entered the house and dragged away the child but did not eat the flesh. Since the leopard is a secretive animal, it is really very difficult to study its behaviour. It is difficult to understand the purpose behind this attack without a proper study.”