Boy killed in suspected leopard attack in Mysuru village

Chief Minister orders launch of intensive combing operation to capture of the animal

Eleven year old Jayanth who was found killed by a leopard at Horalahalli in T. Narsipur taluk on Sunday, January 22. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

A 11 year-old boy was found killed by a leopard at Horalahalli village in T. Narsipur taluk of Mysuru district on Sunday, January 22.

The victim, Jayanth, went missing on Saturday evening and his partially eaten body was found nearly 1.5 km away from the village amidst shrub vegetation. This is the second human death in suspected leopard attack in the last 48 hours and the fourth since the last three months in T. Narsipur taluk alone, sending shockwaves among the local community..

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday ordered the Forest Department to launch an intensive combing operation for the early capture of the leopard.

Mr. Bommai, who was speaking to mediapersons at Suttur, said that he had directed the deployment of additional staff to ramp up patrolling while the Deputy Commissioner was instructed to take all steps for the early capture of the leopard.

Though the police had launched a search operation on receiving a complaint on Saturday evening, it was disbanded at night. The search was resumed by local villagers at dawn on Sunday and they stumbled upon the boy’s body about 2 km from his house.

Malathi Priya, Chief Conservator of Forests, Mysuru Circle, who confirmed the incident, said the leopard had apparently taken away the boy from the main road of the village itself. Combing had resumed in the area to trap the leopard and about 130 staff had been pressed for the operation while officials in charge of the Elephant Task Force had also been deployed to provide reinforcement, she added.

Additional Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Kumar Pushkar said as many as 21 cages had been placed at strategic locations while thermal drone was being used to track the movement of the leopard during night. In addition, 40 camera traps had also been installed in a bid to capture the leopard’s image and establish its identity.

Deputy Commissioner K.V. Rajendra who held a meeting with senior officials of the Forest Department said that apart from measures to track and capture the leopard, he had also instructed the jurisdictional sugar factory to complete sugarcane harvesting within 15 days. He said the entire swathe of land around the village had standing sugarcane crop which provided an ideal habitat for leopards.

In addition, an order would be issued to absentee landlords and farm owners across the taluk to clear their land of shrub vegetation. There was a 40-acre farmland which was not tended and was overgrown with vegetation and the boy’s body was found there, reinforcing suspicion that the leopard had found a sanctuary in the place.

Local villagers staged a demonstration and blocked the highway at T. Narsipur to protest the killing of a 11-year-old boy by a leopard, on Sunday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

There was a massive protest near the T. Narsipur bridge by people of the area, expressing their ire against repeated human deaths owing to conflict with leopards. Meanwhile, the body of Jayanth was handed over to his parents after postmortem.