Bengaluru, May 9: A three-year-old boy was killed by a leopard in the early hours of Saturday in Magadi taluk near Bengaluru.
According to police, the boy identified as C Hemanth, was sleeping with his parents - Chandrasekhar and Mangalagowramma - outside his grandfather Chikkanna's residence at Kadaraiana Palya.
The couple, residents of Dodderi, near Big Banyan Tree (Dodda Alada Mara), had been staying at Chikkanna's [Mangalagowramma's father] residence since past a few days following the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic in Bengaluru.
Some of the family members, with the child, had slept outside the residence on Friday as the temperature was high. The feline might have taken the child between 1.30 a.m. and 4 a.m., and killed it on the outskirts of the village, said the sources.
After a frantic search, family members and villagers found the mutilated body of the child in the early hours. The leopard had left the partially devoured body on the outskirts of the village, added the sources.
According to the villagers, many felines have been prowling in the area, probably arriving from forests around Magadi and attached areas, for the last several weeks.
The Forest Department officials said that they have launched an exercise to trap the animal by placing cages with live baits.
According to preliminary investigations, the child was killed by a leopard. Pugmarks were found near the body. A detailed investigation and post-mortem report will find the exact cause for the death.
The incident has sent shockwaves in the vicinity of the village. According to the sources, people are planning to launch a protest to condemn the killing of the boy.
Minister for Forest and Environment B.S. Anand Singh has announced a compensation of ₹7.5 lakh to the family of the victim.
Accompanied by Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha member D.K. Suresh, Magadi legislator Manjunath and senior officials, Mr. Singh visited the place on Saturday morning.
Addressing media persons, he said that the department has decided to start combing operations for the leopard.
Mr. Suresh said the leopard might have come from Thippagondanahalli reservoir's catchment area on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The leopard has already tasted the blood of the child and hence the department should initiate immediate action [as the chances of the feline becoming a man-eater is high, Mr. Suresh added.
It is learnt that the youth from minority community used to distribute sweets on the during the Independence Day procession every year. 
Comments
RSS biggest strenght is Lie. They can't digest the patriotism of muslims. Before the Independence RSS was supporting British, once got the Independence Rats started to come out. They have no moral rights to blame others on patriotism their forefathers were proved their patriotism while supporting British. Jai hind
True, Sangeeth... media always highlight muslims, minority and dalits..
Biased media. There might be some other reason. without reason why we should attack them.
LOL... Exactly Rajeev..
The reason is nothing but they distributed not saffron colour laddu.. they gave yellow laddu. nobody can tolerate this extreme step.. so they attacked
This is the outcome of Amit Shah's visit to karnataka.
Why amicable settlement grab such desh drohi culprit and make a procession let the peace loving Mangaloreans aware of such bjp wings lntention and motive.
Spreading communalism not required in our south kanara dist.
Add new comment