One dead, 7 injured as leopard goes on rampage in Jharkhand village

Singh, who is camping in the village, said the villagers with sticks and other weapons tried to capture the animal in the morning but the panicked leopard injured seven of them. 'Six people were sent to Maheshpur hospital for treatment while one Stephen Hansda,40, who is serious, was referred to PMCH, Dhanbad,' Singh said. Forest officials gave away Rs 25,000 to Tudu's kin for final rites and Rs 25,000 to Hansda for treatment. As per the forest department's rule, a compensation of Rs 4 lakh is given if one dies in a man-animal conflict. Singh said, 'The village crowd is posing trouble in driving away the animal. If need arises, we will impose section 144 to keep the situation under control.' Singh said houses in the village were scattered and there were farm fields in between the houses where the leopard was hide and seek. 'Since we neither had tranquilliser nor its expert to capture the leopard, we have sought guidelines from the divisional forest officer,' he said. Villagers said this was the first incident of killing by leopard in the village in recent years. One such incident took place a year back at Agua hill, which is located five kilometer away from the village, a villager said. The forest officials said the leopard might have come from the Agua hill where forest cover was degrading for past few years. The animal might have deviated from its route and entered the village. State wildlife board member DS Srivastava said, 'Santhal region has good population of leopards. With tree cover degrading in the region, now they are coming out of the forest and entering villages in search of food.' DailyhuntDisclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by Dailyhunt. Publisher: Hindustan Timeshttp://wiznotes.com/UserProfile/tabid/84/userId/244505/Default.aspx

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