Leopard Mauls, Eats 2-Year-Old Child Sleeping Outside Home; Victim's Remains Found

A toddler in India was mauled to death by a leopard while she was sleeping outside her home Sunday.

The two-year-old girl lived in Bhandariya village in the western state of Gujarat. Authorities said by the time the girl's family realized the leopard had attacked and dragged away the child, the animal had escaped. The victim's remains were later found.

“It ate around 70-80% of the body. The victim could be identified only by her clothes. Four cages have been set up in the area to capture the wild cat," forest range officer Arpit Bhariya told The Times of India.

Forest officials believe the leopard may have been attracted by the goats tethered near the house or by some leftovers of the family's non-vegetarian dinner, which was dumped nearby.

"We got two versions of the incident. In the first, her parents came to know of the incident very late. According to the second, the mother saw the leopard tacking away the child but couldn’t shout due to fright. Her remains were found around 500 meters away from her home,” Nisha Raj, deputy conservator of forests in the region, told The Indian Express.

The incident comes just a day after two women were injured in a leopard attack at Garamali village of Amreli district in the state, a forest department official said. Authorities said the two women were attacked Friday night when they were sleeping outside a shed of farmland in the village. One of the victims was in critical condition.

The state government said in March as many as 67 persons were killed in leopard attacks in Gujarat over the last five years. According to The New Indian Express, leopards have attacked 718 persons in different parts of the state between 2015 and 2019.

In May, a leopard mauled and killed an 8-year-old girl while she was sleeping next to her parents on the terrace of their home on a farm. The victim's five siblings were sleeping next to her when the attack took place. The leopard reportedly climbed up to the terrace and grabbed the girl by her neck before jumping down with the child.