Pune: The forest department has captured a leopard presumably responsible for killing a 55-year-old woman in Jambut village of Junnar on Monday. Muktabai Bhau Khade lived alone near a farm in the village. She was found dead with her abdomen and face eaten by a leopard.
Khade entered the sugar cane field early on Monday and did not return. Her neighbours started a search for her and called the forest department suspecting a leopard attack . Department officials reached the spot and found her body in a sugar cane farm.
"We took swab analysis and hair samples of the animal from her body. She had multiple injuries and her body was covered partially with maggots. Her body was taken to a hospital in Shirur after which doctors confirmed that the injuries were from an animal attack," said a senior forest official.
The department then laid ten trap cages and camera traps in the area and carried out regular patrolling. The leopard was found trapped in one of the cages, around 100 metres from the location of the attack, early on Wednesday. "We will now conduct a DNA analysis and compare it with the sample found on the woman.
If it matches, we will keep the leopard in lifetime care in Manikdoh rescue centre," said the official. There have been three other attacks in Junnar in the last few days in which citizens out on morning walk suffered grievous injuries. On Tuesday morning, a 50-year-old man out on a stroll early in the morning was attacked by a leopard in Narayangaon.
He was admitted in a hospital for treatment of injuries suffered in the attack. On Monday, Ankush Kharde (60) was attacked by a leopard hiding amidst tall grass when he went to his farm to start the water pump. He suffered a minor head injury and was admitted in a hospital in Shirur.
Meanwhile, two people were injured when a leopard attacked them when they were moving around on a bike in Otur village late on Monday night. Following this, Junnar forest division declared five villages — Jambut, Pimparkhed, Fakate, Chandoh, and Kakadi — as sensitive zones and hotspots for leopard habitation. The department has received permission from a committee of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, headed by the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) in the state, to capture "problematic" leopards in the region.
Once any leopard is captured and found responsible for any previous attacks, the forest department tries to relocate it to Vantara zoo in Jamnagar or to any other rescue centre, or protected areas in the state owing to space crunch at Manikdoh rescue centre. "This is the first time after two years of awareness programmes and preventative operations that so many attacks have occurred in Jambut village. We will conduct more regularised and intensive awareness, trapping procedures, and patrolling," said Amol Satpute, deputy conservator of forests, Junnar division.
Satpute added that during monsoon, leopards tend to move around to avoid water stagnation in sugar cane farms. He said that due to the region's location near a river basin, it is a hotspot for leopards. Pune: The forest department has captured a leopard presumably responsible for killing a 55-year-old woman in Jambut village of Junnar on Monday.
Muktabai Bhau Khade lived alone near a farm in the village. She was found dead with her abdomen and face eaten by a leopard. Khade entered the sugar cane field early on Monday and did not return.
Her neighbours started a search for her and called the forest department suspecting a leopard attack. Department officials reached the spot and found her body in a sugar cane farm. "We took swab analysis and hair samples of the animal from her body.
She had multiple injuries and her body was covered partially with maggots. Her body was taken to a hospital in Shirur after which doctors confirmed that the injuries were from an animal attack," said a senior forest official. The department then laid ten trap cages and camera traps in the area and carried out regular patrolling.
The leopard was found trapped in one of the cages, around 100 metres from the location of the attack, early on Wednesday. "We will now conduct a DNA analysis and compare it with the sample found on the woman. If it matches, we will keep the leopard in lifetime care in Manikdoh rescue centre," said the official.
There have been three other attacks in Junnar in the last few days in which citizens out on morning walk suffered grievous injuries. On Tuesday morning, a 50-year-old man out on a stroll early in the morning was attacked by a leopard in Narayangaon. He was admitted in a hospital for treatment of injuries suffered in the attack.
On Monday, Ankush Kharde (60) was attacked by a leopard hiding amidst tall grass when he went to his farm to start the water pump. He suffered a minor head injury and was admitted in a hospital in Shirur. Meanwhile, two people were injured when a leopard attacked them when they were moving around on a bike in Otur village late on Monday night.
Following this, Junnar forest division declared five villages — Jambut, Pimparkhed, Fakate, Chandoh, and Kakadi — as sensitive zones and hotspots for leopard habitation. The department has received permission from a committee of the National Tiger Conservation Authority, headed by the principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) in the state, to capture "problematic" leopards in the region. Once any leopard is captured and found responsible for any previous attacks, the forest department tries to relocate it to Vantara zoo in Jamnagar or to any other rescue centre, or protected areas in the state owing to space crunch at Manikdoh rescue centre.
"This is the first time after two years of awareness programmes and preventative operations that so many attacks have occurred in Jambut village. We will conduct more regularised and intensive awareness, trapping procedures, and patrolling," said Amol Satpute, deputy conservator of forests, Junnar division. Satpute added that during monsoon, leopards tend to move around to avoid water stagnation in sugar cane farms.
He said that due to the region's location near a river basin, it is a hotspot for leopards..
