Leopard Drags 4-Year-Old Child Away In Front Of Family, Victim's Half-Eaten Body Found

A leopard reportedly mauled a 4-year-old girl to death after dragging her away while she was playing outside her house in India.

The child lived with her family in the city of Nashik, in the western state of Maharashtra. Villagers and forest department officials searched for the girl after they were notified a leopard dragged her away Sunday night. The child’s family said she was taken away in the blink of an eye and the animal disappeared into the forest, UNI India reported.

The victim's half-eaten body was found nearly 12 hours later in a farm. Authorities said the leopard mauled the girl before leaving her body. It remains unclear if the leopard had returned to the scene for the child's remains.

The latest incident comes as the forest department set up four cages and deployed its personnel in and around the village of Dhagur to capture a leopard responsible for the death of another child, The Times of India reported. However, it is not known if the same animal was responsible for both the killings.

The number of leopard-human conflicts have been increasing in the state and nearby areas recently. Last month, a video went viral showing a 55-year-old woman fighting off a big cat that charged at her from behind. The footage shows the woman fending off the animal despite it catching her off guard. The incident took place in an area in the city of Mumbai.

“Leopard is an opportunistic animal. They move out, go to nearby villages in search of easy prey. One has to understand that their presence doesn’t mean that they will attack humans and also, we cannot go about trapping these animals. Instead, we have to start understanding how to live with the animals. People will have to co-exist with them,” Sunil Limaye, principal chief conservator of forests, and head of an 11-member committee – set up by the state government in January to study leopard-human conflict – said, according to The New Indian Express.

In the state of Uttarakhand, a leopard mauled a 4-year-old child last month after it dragged the boy away while he was sleeping on the terrace of his home. The leopard reportedly snatched the child by the neck. When the boy’s parents realized he was missing, they started searching for him. Hours later, the boy was found in the clutches of the leopard in a nearby sugarcane field. When locals scared the leopard, the animal left the child's body behind.