Leopard Drags Away 5-Year-Old Child In Front Of His Mother, Victim's Body Found

A leopard attacked and killed a five-year-old boy while he was walking with his mother Monday morning by the side of a sugarcane farm. The incident took place in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

According to local police, the child and his mother were being accompanied by other laborers when the leopard emerged out of the bushes and pounced on the child. The animal dragged the boy away while his mother helplessly looked on.

“His mother and others tried to chase the big cat but in vain and the boy was found dead with severe injuries to the neck some 500 metres away,” an official told the Deccan Herald.

The victim has been identified by local media as Akash. Forest officials said that the leopard had caught the boy by his neck, resulting in the child's death, The Times of India reported. The whereabouts of the leopard responsible for the latest incident remains unknown.

Talking about the incident, wildlife activist Rohan Bhate said that leopards have started considering the sugarcane farms in the area as their natural habitat. Bhate believes that this has resulted in an increase in human-animal conflicts.

“The Karad-Patan region of Satara is a leopard-prone region, following by Nashik as well as Jinnar in Pune district,” Bhate said, talking about the areas in the state of Maharashtra. “For the past two to three years, over 35 new leopard-prone spots have come up here. Young leopards born in these parts do not know the forest is their natural habitat and home in on sugarcane fields.”

In a similar incident in October, a leopard mauled a 4-year-old girl to death after dragging her away while she was playing outside her house, in India. This incident took place in the city of Nashik, in Maharashtra. Villagers and forest department officials searched for the girl after they were notified of the incident. Following a search of nearly 12 hours, locals found the victim's half-eaten body in a farm. Authorities said the leopard mauled the girl before leaving her body.

Following the incident, the forest department set up four cages and deployed its personnel in and around the village of Dhagur to capture the leopard.