Leopard attacks man, kids in Bijnor village, villagers beat it to death

Angry villagers killed a female leopard after it attacked a homeguard, Surendra Kumar, in village Amaan Nagar of Kiratpur area, in district Bijnor, on Friday evening.
Hearing the screams of Surendra’s son and daughter, Surendra also reached the spot and the trio had a fierce fight with the leopard. Meanwhile, villagers also reached there and killed the leopard, beating it with sticks.
Surendra Kumar, 45, received multiple injuries in the attack by the leopard and his daughter and son also sustained injuries. Surendra was immediately taken to a hospital and seeing his serious condition, he was referred to the medical college in Meerut where he is undergoing treatment.
Divisional forest officer (DFO), Bijnor, Gyan Singh and teams of forest department rushed to the spot and enquired about the incident and dead leopard.
Singh said that the incident occurred on Friday evening when Surendra had gone to collect fodder from his farmland situated close to his house. “The leopard ambushed him and along with his son and daughter, he sustained multiple injuries in the encounter with the big cat.” He also said that villagers killed the leopard to save the lives of Surendra and his children.
He claimed that the killed leopard was a female. Her body has been sent for a post-mortem examination and the cause of death will be revealed in the report.
Conservator of forests, Moradabad division, Ramesh Chandra, said “The leopard is a protected animal, therefore, as per the guidelines a case will be registered for its killing”. He clarified that investigation will reveal under what conditions the animal was killed.
The DFO said that a case under section 9/51 of the Wildlife Protection Act has been registered against unknown villagers for killing the leopard. He said a leopard’s killing may attract a punishment of three years in jail.
He said that this was the second incident when a big cat was killed in similar circumstances. He said that in a similar incident a leopard was killed last year.
Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Kisan Union has threatened to launch a protest if any case is registered against villagers. “We will protest if the forest department registers a case against villagers,” said Sonu Choudhary, district president of BKU in Bijnor.
Bijnor district has been facing the danger of leopards for the past 20 months. Leopards have killed 26 people since February last year and 67 leopards have been caged by the forest department from different locations of the district.