Leopard attacks three-year-old in Uttarakhand, drags him into forest

New Delhi: In yet another incident of animal attack in Uttarakhand, a leopard pounced upon a three-year-old child in the state's Bageshwar district on Friday night, dragging him into the heavily-forested area in the region.

Karan, the toddler, was playing in the garden outside his house after dinner. His mother was only a few meters away where she was washing dishes when she heard a loud scream from her son. What she saw when she turned left her shocked - a leopard was dragging the toddler outside the compound. Although she raised an alarm immediately and tried to rush to help her son, the animal managed to take the child into the forest. As news of the incident spread, panic too spread among locals. District and forest officials reached the spot and began a search operation immediately but at the time of filing this report, the boy had not been located.

Incidents of animal attack have been steadily rising in Uttarakhand where humans are encroaching upon areas traditionally under a dense forest cover. Wildlife experts believe that animals such as leopards are increasingly coming into contact with humans as the boundary lines between forest and human spaces are disappearing. In Bageshwar district, and in Harinagar - where the Friday's incident too place - in particular, locals have begun demanding that the forest area should be fenced as leopard sightings have gone up.