‘Ex-gratia of 4L given to aggrieved family’
Udaipur : A leopard mauled a four-year-old girl Priya daughter of Ekaram, to death in Peepad village under Losing gram panchayat in Gogunda block of Udaipur district on Monday. The child’s mother Gopi Bai worked under the NREGA scheme and had taken her two kids along to the workplace. In the evening around 5.30 pm while returning home, she left her daughter and son at the roadside on the fencing boundary and went inside her field for a few minutes.
“A leopard tiptoed from the forest side and lifted the little girl in his mouth and escaped. Someone passing by the road saw the leopard carrying away something in its mouth. Meanwhile when the woman returned to pick her kids, she found the girl missing. Hearing her cries people gathered and it was concluded that the leopard had taken away the girl” DFO Balaji Kari told Udaipur Kiran.
Forest officials and police teams rushed to the spot on being informed. Meanwhile over 200 villagers launched a search operation inside the deep woods and saw the leopard that was sitting on the girl’s body. They pelted stones and scared away the beast and brought the body to the village which was shifted to the mortuary.
” The autopsy was done on Tuesday. We visited the area and met the child’s family. An ex-gratia of 4 lakh rupees as per the government norms, was given to her father” Balaji said. The forest department has installed two cages and two camera traps on strategic locations to catch the leopard. Ten forest guards have been deployed in the area. ” We have cautioned the villagers not to roam around freely for some days as there are chances of the animal coming back since it has tasted human flesh, children and women are soft targets for wild animals” the officer said.