A leopard killed a five-year-old girl and her mutilated body was found in the forests of Kanlog area of Shimla city, said the forest officials.
Priyanka, a five-year-old girl belonging to a family of migrant labourers, was killed in a leopard attack on Thursday night. The girl's mutilated body was found in the forests of the Kanlog area on Friday morning.
Priyanka's family had come to Shimla to earn money from Nawathi Batauli area of Jharkhand. While her father had left for his native village two months ago, Priyanka stayed back with her grandmother.
"Yesterday night I was cooking rice. My granddaughter had gone out for a while. I was just here when I heard a sound and thought some bucket might have fallen. Within no time, she was taken away by the leopard. I had sent my son (father of the deceased) earlier to our village for farming in Jharkhand. I had told him that we would earn money here and would send it to our village. Who would have thought where destiny would take that little girl," said Sukhmati, grandmother of the deceased.
"We got to know the little girl had gone to the neighbourhood and while returning back, she had gone to urinate. Before we knew it, she was taken away by the wild cat. We tried to search her but later informed the police and the Forest department," said Dayal Singh, a fellow-labourer who works with the girl's grandmother.
According to Archana Sharma, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) of Himachal Pradesh Forest Department, a search team was deployed to look for the girl but unfortunately, they found her mutilated body in the morning.
"We have placed trap cameras and also have put trap cages to catch the man-eater. I have told them to place more cages here. We will also run campaigns to aware people living near the forests of the safety precautions," she added.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Jairam Thakur said that it was an unfortunate incident. "We have directed the Forest department to catch the man-eater. If they fail to catch him and the leopard is found in the city causing more of such incidents, we have directed them to shoot the man-eater," he said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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