Residents of Udaipur are now writhing under the terror of frequent leopard attacks. Recently, a leopard attacked three women who were collecting wood from a hill near National Highway 58E in the Jhadol area of Udaipur district. The menacing beast dragged one of the women away and her body was discovered with the torso and head separated after a search team was dispatched to find the woman.
Unnerved and enraged by the tragedy, the villagers placed the woman’s body on the Udaipur Jhadol-Ahmedabad highway and blocked traffic. The villagers are demanding compensation of Rs 51 lakh and the immediate killing of the leopard. A team from three police stations was sent to the protest site to contain the mob. After negotiations led by Jhadol SDM Mani Lal and DFO Mukesh Saini, an agreement was finally reached in the evening. The settlement included a compensation package of Rs 10 lakh and assurance of employment to two family members as labourers in the forest department’s nursery.
National Highway 58E, which remained blocked for six hours, was reopened and vehicular movement was eventually restored in the evening. The victim of the wild attack has been identified as Mirabai, a 40-year-old lady, who was dragged away by the leopard despite the efforts of the two other women accompanying her to scare away the leopard. The lady’s mangled corpse was discovered more than one kilometre inside the forest on the other side of the hill. The forest department also began a search for the leopard by employing drones, but the efforts yielded no success.
