Old woman wards off hungry leopard with her walking stick late on Wednesday evening; authorities scramble to decide next steps
Nirmal Singh, 68, was sitting in her verandah when the incident took place; she has sustained injuries to her neck, leg, shoulder and back; (bottom) screen grabs from CCTV footage of the attack
A senior citizen was attacked by a leopard right at the doorstep of her Aarey Milk Colony home on Wednesday. A CCTV camera installed in the area recorded the incident. This is the fifth such incident in the last one month. The incident took place around 7.40 pm when Nirmal Singh, 68, was sitting in her verandah at Visava near Aarey Dairy. The footage showed that the leopard, which was already there, attacked her as she sat down.
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The woman fell down and there was a minor scuffle between the senior citizen and the leopard. The woman used the walking stick to defend herself. The leopard got scared and escaped into the bushes next to the house.
Police were informed and a team of Thane forest officials also reached the spot. Singh was taken to a civic hospital. She has sustained injuries to her neck, leg, shoulder and back.
A Senior Forest Department official said, "We have already approached the principal chief Conservator of forest -wildlife office at Nagpur and we are hopeful that by tomorrow morning or afternoon we will get the permission to trap the problem."
The woman has sustained injuries and is undergoing treatment at a civic-run hospital
Wildlife researchers have installed camera traps near the location to monitor the feline’s movement.
Uday Sangle, a local, said, "The frequency of the attacks clearly highlights the fact that there is some problem with the individual leopard that is attacking people. Before someone dies in a man-animal conflict, the forest department should take all necessary measures and capture the leopard."
Leopard cub yet to be reunited with mother
The effort to reunite the leopard cub, which was rescued from the Metro-3 car depot site in Aarey Milk Colony on Tuesday, with its mother was not successful on Tuesday night. Thane forest department officials said they will again place the cub in the area, where it was rescued from, on Wednesday night. Meanwhile, environmentalists have demanded that the tin sheets surrounding the car depot be cleared to facilitate free movement of wildlife.
Rohit Tilak Bahadur was attacked by a leopard on September 18
The cub was rescued from the boundary of the earlier Metro-3 car depot site at Aarey milk colony. A forest department official had said, “On Tuesday night, the leopard cub was placed near the location from where it was rescued, for the purpose of reunion with its mother, but the attempt was not successful. On Wednesday, the cub will be once again kept for reunion.” Forest department officials have installed camera traps to monitor the activity of the leopard.
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