Tejas Navale

Pune: An 8-year-old boy who came to his maternal uncle's home in Kolwadi village of Junnar for summer vacation was snatched by a leopard while he was playing in the yard in front of the house. After this, his dead body was found on a nearby sugar farm. This incident took place at around 8.30 in the morning yesterday.

The deceased child has been identified as Rudra Mahesh Phafale. According to the information, the deceased child had come to his maternal uncle's village for the summer holiday. Yesterday, when Rudra was playing in the yard, suddenly one leopard arrived from a nearby sugar farm. The leopard immediately took the boy and vanished in a nearby farm.

After Rudra's family started searching for him, they found his dead body in a nearby sugar cane. After this incident, a wave of terror has spread in the village. Just two days ago, a similar incident took place, where a woman who was weeding in the field was suddenly attacked by a leopard in Pimpalwadi. In this attack, the woman was seriously injured, and she is undergoing treatment.

These continuous incidents have created a huge outcry among the people, and people are now demanding the right to shoot leopards on the spot from the forest department of Junnar.

As per the data, in the last five years, leopards have claimed 15 human lives in the Junnar forest division area. Whereas, 13,775 animals have been lost in leopard attacks.

The sub-conservator of the Junnar Forest Department, Amol Satpute, has informed that discussions have been held with the senior officials of Nagpur regarding sterilisation and other measures to control the population of leopards in the Junnar Forest Division. Furthermore, he also assured that a senior level meeting will be held on this issue soon and some concrete policy decisions will be taken on it.