The villagers of Balmara in Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal district on Tuesday locked up over 15 block and forest department officials in the panchayat office, where they were holding a meeting to deal with a maneater leopard that had killed two people in the last week.
The villagers released the officials after they assured them of caging or killing the animal within a few days.
The leopard’s latest victim was Prakash Lal, 45, who was killed on Tuesday morning while returning home from work.
“He was walking back home when the leopard attacked him at Jamalkhala in the Ghurdauri forest range. The animal dragged him into the forest, and some villagers later found his body,” Rakesh Singh, a local, told reporters.
“The same leopard had killed a villager five days ago. We had informed forest department officers about the incident, and they visited the area. But it turned out to be a mere formality as they didn’t do anything to catch or kill the maneater,” Singh added.
Lal was the leopard’s third victim this year. Another villager was attacked and killed in January.
Divisional forest officer Mahatim Yadav said: “It is wrong to say that we are sitting idle. I have been personally visiting the spot and chalking out a plan to cage or kill the animal. The forest department’s team is at work there.”
Leopards had killed two women at Bhimtal in Nainital in January and two people in Champawat district in December 2025.
According to state government data, wild animals, including bears and leopards, have killed over 100 people in the last five years. Locals claim that over 300 people have lost their lives in the man-animal conflict that they pin on the widening of roads through forest areas.
Acknowledging that the crisis was deepening in the state, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday announced an increase in the compensation to the family members of those killed by animals from ₹6 lakh to ₹10 lakh. He also earmarked ₹5 crore for a programme to rescue wild animals if they stray into human settlements. An additional ₹131 crore has been allocated for creating a mechanism to curb man-animal conflicts.