UDAIPUR: A 65-year-old woman was mauled to death by a leopard around Thursday midnight in Singhatwada gram panchayat of Zawar Mines area in Udaipur district.
Her mutilated body was found 1km away from her home in the morning.
The body was partially eaten and hence the villagers fear the big cat had turned into a man-eater.
A week ago, a leopard killed another woman in the area.
The villagers staged a protest and refused to shift the body.
They demanded to shoot the wild cat.
After much persuasion and assurances to take swift action, the forest department managed to control the situation and the body was shifted to the hospital for autopsy.
The department has also sought permission from the state government to shoot the leopard.
DFO Mukesh Saini said that a week ago, a woman was mauled by a leopard and hence the department had installed five cages to trap it.
On Thursday night, after the second death, additional five cages have been installed and monitoring has been increased in the entire area.
“Though it is not confirmed whether it is the same leopard that had mauled the women, teams have set out to track the leopard and find out if there is one or more animal, by studying the pugmarks.
A tranquillising team is also stationed in the area,” the officer said.
Three deaths, eight attacks in six months: The leopard-human conflict is frequent in this area as reports of the wild cat attacking cattle and human beings are common.
According to DFO Mukesh Saini in past six months, at two locations, eight attacks have been reported on the villagers and three casualties have taken place including, Amari Bai wife of Mangla who was dragged away past midnight when she was sleeping in the courtyard of her home.
The forest department had not sought permission to shoot the leopard but since the villagers were adamant, they demanded to shoot the leopard and hence we have forwarded their demand to the government, Saini told TOI.
He also said that teams are stationed at different spots and cameras have been put up at several locations, hoping the big cat would be caught soon.