Leopard suspected of killing boy, 10, caged in Kheri village

Pilibhit: An adult leopard was trapped in a cage near Rajpur village in Kheri district, around 10km from the nearest forest area of Dhaurhara range, early on Sunday. Forest officials suspect the leopard was also involved in the June 7 death of 10-year-old Shubham Yadav, who was attacked around 6 pm while helping his father in a village paddy nursery.Forest range officer Ashok Shrivastav said the animal was shifted to the range headquarters for a medical examination and was found healthy, with no physical injury or deformity. “We are waiting for directions from the state’s chief wildlife warden regarding the relocation of the leopard,” he said.An anonymous wildlife expert questioned the leopard’s definitive link to the boy’s death, noting that standard operating procedures require matching the captured animal with plaster casts of pugmarks taken from the conflict site.

He added that since this procedure was not carried out, it was difficult to establish whether the captured leopard was the same animal involved in the boy’s death.This was the fifth leopard capture reported from Dudhwa Tiger Reserve buffer zone in the past five weeks. Earlier, four leopardesses were captured from Kataila farm, Sahajna, Bhirauri and Veer Baba areas of Murtiyan village panchayat on May 22, May 25, June 9 and June 21, respectively.