Leopard Drags Away 10-Year-Old Boy In Front Of His Friends, Child’s Half-Eaten Body Found

The half-eaten body of a 10-year-old boy was found in a forest after he was attacked and dragged away by a leopard in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The boy had gone with his friends to graze cattle in a forest Monday when the incident took place. The police said the leopard was reportedly hiding in the bushes, while the victim and his friends were roaming around, unaware of the animal's presence. The leopard then jumped on the boy and dragged him away, the Free Press Journal reported.

The boy's companions escaped the scene and went to the village to inform the others. Locals arrived at the scene to save the child, but only found the boy's mutilated corpse.

Seeing the villagers, the leopard ran away leaving the child's body, the Free Press Journal reported. After a while, the animal came back and tried to take the half-eaten body away. A local in the area saw the leopard and raised an alarm. Villagers shouted and pelted stoned at the leopard, following which the animal fled into the forest.

The victim has been identified as Sandeep, son of Raju Bhil. The police said the victim's remains have been sent for an autopsy.

According to local media, this was the second leopard attack on a child in the last 39 days. An 8-year-old child had been taken away by a leopard while he was sleeping on his bed, Nai Dunia reported [Google Translate showed].

According to the "Status of Leopards in India 2018" report released last year, Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of leopards in the country. There are 3,421 leopards in the state, followed by Karnataka (1783) and Maharashtra (1690). While the rising population of leopards is a matter of pride for the country, it is also increasing animal-people conflicts as the human population continues to move into the wildlife space.

Earlier this month in Himachal Pradesh, a 5-year-old girl was mauled to death by a leopard. The victim was outside her home near a forest area when the leopard attacked her. The police and the forest department launched a search, and found the girl's severed head near a drain the next day. Later, the girl's partially-eaten body was found in the forest.