TANAHU, June 9: Pushpa Adhikari, a nine-year-old girl of Bhanu Municipality-2, has been killed in a leopard attack on Friday evening. According to police, the child was attacked in the backyard of her own house when she was playing.
DSP Lila Raj Lamichhane told Republica that the leopard grabbed her and took her some 500 meters away from her home, where her dead body was found. Police said that scratch marks were found on the victim's neck while the rest of her body was unscathed.
Locals of Bhanu Municipality in Tanahun district have been terrorized following a series of leopard attacks in the municipality in recent days.
In previous attacks, two boys and a girl had been killed in the municipality. Locals are extremely worried by the increase in number of such attacks in recent days.
Nabin Dahal, a local, said that people are terrorized by leopard attacks in different areas of the municipality.
Six-year-old mauled to death in leopard attack
“The attacks had stopped for a few months but have now started again,” Dahal said.
He demanded that the government authorities remain on high alert and take necessary measures to track down the man-eater.
Children in the area are at high risk. In the time span of a year, the leopard has killed four children. The government had provided relief worth Rs 1 million to the victims' family.
Between mid-January and February, two individuals of Bhanu Municipality-5 and Bhanu Municipality-2 had died after being attacked by leopard. Attacks had stopped for a while but have started reoccurring.
The locals are extremely worried as the leopard has still not been captured. Despite installing cameras, foot traps, and various other equipment to track down the animal, it's still not located.
On February 13 last year, six-year-old Bishal Shrestha of Bhanu Municipality-3 was killed in an attack.
Then on November 15 the same year, four-year-old Ranjita Lamsal succumbed to injuries of leopard attack after which ten-year-old Amrit Gurung died in similar circumstances on December 11, 2018.
Victim's family provided relief
Pushpa Adhikari's family has been provided with relief on Saturday.
Division Forest Office, Tanahu's chief Kedar Baral provided an immediate relief worth Rs 50,000. They will soon be provided an additional Rs 1.5 million, according to Baral.
The Division Forest Office informed that initiatives are being taken to bring the situation under control.
On Saturday, Armed Police, Nepal Police and officials of the forest office went on a search operation to find the killer leopard.
