A leopard believed to be responsible for a series of fatal attacks that left three people dead, including a 13-year-old boy, has been shot dead in Maharashtra’s Pune district, forest officials said on Wednesday.
The decision followed weeks of rising tension and repeated attacks in the Mauje Pimparkhed area of Shirur tehsil, where two minors and an elderly person were killed over the past month. The incidents sparked widespread anger and protests across Junnar, Shirur, Ambegaon, and Khed talukas.
After Sunday’s attack that claimed the life of 13-year-old Rohan Bombe, enraged villagers set ablaze a forest department vehicle.
The following day, forest authorities ordered the capture and “elimination” of the leopard and deployed a team of five sharpshooters in the area.
“The man-eater leopard was spotted 400 to 500 metres from the attack site on Tuesday night. The team of sharpshooters fired a tranquilising dart, but it failed. As the leopard became aggressive and was approaching them to attack, the shooters opened fire at around 10.30 pm, killing the feline. The leopard was in the age group of 5 to 6 years,” an official from the Junnar forest division said.
The carcass was shown to villagers in Pimparkhed and later taken to the Manikdoh Rescue Centre for post-mortem, the official added.
Forest department officials said a male leopard was also captured earlier on Tuesday after it walked into a cage set up in the same area.
Maharashtra Forest Minister Ganesh Naik said on Tuesday that the leopard believed to have killed three individuals in Shirur tehsil had been captured and orders issued for its relocation. He announced a series of measures to curb the escalating human-animal conflict.
“Captured leopards will be relocated promptly to suitable habitats. We will use artificial intelligence for satellite-based tracking and early warning systems to alert citizens about leopard movements,” Naik said.
Addressing an emergency meeting at Mantralaya, Naik said 200 cages will be installed immediately to capture leopards in affected areas, with an additional 1,000 to be procured on a “war footing.”
He also announced a Rs 10 crore fund sanctioned for the urgent purchase of cages and related equipment and directed officials to implement both short-term and long-term preventive measures, including strengthening forest staff, installing solar fencing around farmlands, and sterilisation drives for leopards.
“After the latest fatal incident on Sunday, the leopard believed to be responsible was captured immediately, and orders have been issued for its urgent relocation,” Naik added.
Assistant Conservator of Forests Smita Rajhans earlier said that DNA samples from captured leopards would be matched with those from victims to identify the animal involved in the fatal attacks.
“Swabs will be collected from leopards caught during the tranquilising process to identify those involved in the recent fatal attacks. The samples will be sent to the labs for DNA matching with swabs taken from the victims and if a match is found, the particular leopard will be eliminated,” Rajhans said.
The Junnar forest division, according to the Wildlife Institute of India, has about six to seven leopards for every 100 sq km. Officials say that the combination of abundant water, agricultural activity, and domestic livestock has made the region a suitable habitat for leopards — increasing the risk of human-animal conflict.
