Leopards kill two women in separate incidents

Ahmedabad: Two women were mauled to death by leopards in separate incidents in Junagadh district in the early hours of today, forest officials said.

A 50-year-old woman, identified as Mukaben Kanani was killed by a leopard at Mendarda village in Gir (West) forest division, a senior official said.

Kanani was sleeping in her thatched house when a leopard dragged her away and mauled her to death, deputy conservator of forests (DCF), Pradeep Singh said.

“The victim was sleeping in her house, a kind of temporary structure on the periphery of the village bordering the forest, when a leopard dragged her away and killed her.

Forest officials were alerted. We are trying to locate the animal and have put up cage to trap it,” Singh said.

In a related incident, a 70-year-old woman was mauled to death by a leopard at Maliya village in Gir-Somnath forest division, an official said.

The deceased has been identified as Rajuben Koli. She was killed by the wild animal when she was sleeping in the verandah of her house on the border of Maliya village, said DCF K A Gandhi.

“While pug marks found from the site suggest the animal to be a leopard, nobody from the village appears to have seen it, so we are trying to ascertain it by conducting night patrolling,” Gandhi said.