Leopard Attacks in Pune District: Woman Killed, Elderly Farmer Injured in Separate Incidents
Leopard Attacks in Pune District: Woman Killed, Elderly Farmer Injured in Separate Incidents
A 55-year-old woman was killed, and a 60-year-old farmer was injured in leopard attacks in the Shirur taluka of Pune district on Monday. The incident in Jambut village marks the fifth death related to human-leopard conflicts in the Junnar forest division since March.
In June, the Pune district collector declared over 230 villages in four talukas—Junnar, Ambegaon, Shirur, and Khed—as disaster-prone due to ongoing human-leopard conflicts that have resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries. Muktabai Bhau Khade, who lived alone in Jambut, was reported missing on Monday morning. Villagers, suspecting a leopard attack, alerted the police and forest officials, leading to a search for her. By around 4 pm, her body was discovered in a sugarcane field near her home, showing severe injuries consistent with a leopard attack.
Amol Satpute, the Deputy Conservator of Forests for the Junnar Division, mentioned, “The investigation of the scene and the woman’s postmortem indicate that she might have been attacked by a leopard while she was in the sugarcane field. This village is within the area identified by the district collector as prone to human-leopard conflict. We’ve set up trap cages, and our teams are actively patrolling the region.”
In the second incident, a 60-year-old man named Ankush Kharde was injured in a leopard attack in Kanhur Mesai village on Monday morning. According to Pratap Jagtap, the Range Forest Officer for Shirur, “Kharde had gone to turn on the water pump in his fields when a leopard attacked him from behind. He suffered injuries to his face and hands. He has been taken to a hospital, where he is currently being treated and is out of danger.”
Jambut and Kanhur Mesai are over 25 km apart, and forest officials believe it is unlikely that the same leopard was responsible for both incidents.
Additionally, there have been several tragic incidents related to leopard attacks in the region this year. On April 11, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl named Sanskruti Kulekar was killed in a leopard attack at Shiroli Khurd in Junnar taluka. Following that, on May 5, an 8-year-old boy named Rudra Mahesh Fatale was fatally attacked by a leopard while visiting relatives in the Kolwadi area. Just five days later, on May 10, a 60-year-old woman named Nanubai Sitaram Kadale was attacked and killed while working in her bajra farm in the Pimpri Pendhar area of Junnar. Most recently, in the third week of June, an 11-year-old boy named Yash Suresh Gaikwad lost his life in a leopard attack in Dahiwadi village.
These incidents highlight the ongoing human-leopard conflicts in the area, raising concerns for the safety of residents living close to leopard habitats. After those back-to-back incidents in April and May, the forest department took action and issued a red alert for 13 villages in a 5 sq km area in Junnar taluka. Residents were advised not to go out before 9 am and after 5 pm for their safety. The alert covered villages like Gayamukhwadi, Jambhulpada, Navalewadi, Pimpri Pendhar, Umbraj-1 and 2, Pimpalwadi, Yedgaon, Vaishakhkhede, Chalkawadi, Bhatkalwadi, Nagadwadi, Kandali, and Bhorwadi.
