A leopard attack in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district has claimed the life of a four-year-old child. The incident took place in Sangamner tehsil, where the leopard allegedly lifted the child from outside his home. According to locals, the child was standing at the doorstep of his house while his grandmother was working nearby when the leopard suddenly appeared and dragged him away. The child later died from his injuries.
The leopard involved in the attack has been captured on CCTV cameras installed in the area. After the child’s death, angry villagers staged protests and demanded that the animal be tracked down and neutralised.
Officials said that just two days ago, nearly 200 cages were brought to Ahmednagar district to capture leopards amid rising attacks. Forest department teams have been deployed in and around the affected villages.
Leopard menace reaches Maharashtra assembly
The growing human–leopard conflict also echoed inside the Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday, the third day of the winter session being held in Nagpur. Shiv Sena MLA Sharad Sonawane entered the House wearing a leopard costume and mask, creating chaos and drawing sharp reactions from other legislators.
Some MLAs shouted slogans demanding the “leopard” be removed from the House, while others looked on in surprise.
Sonawane said the act was meant to highlight what he called a “statewide emergency” caused by rising leopard attacks. He claimed that in his region alone, 55 people had been killed by leopards over the past three months.
The protest came just hours after a leopard entered Nagpur’s densely populated Pardi area on Wednesday morning and injured seven people. This was the second such incident in the locality within a month.
As the MLA moved into the well of the House, Assembly Speaker Rahul Patil intervened and warned Sonawane to maintain decorum. The Speaker directed him to change his attire and continue his protest through proper parliamentary procedure.
Earlier, Sonawane argued that leopards should be moved to Schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act. He said this would allow authorities to immediately capture animals that pose imminent danger to human life.
Criticising forest department policies, he said experimental projects launched since 2014 had failed. “Officials sit in air-conditioned cabins. It is not their fear. It is our fear,” he told the House.
Rising concern across Maharashtra
With repeated leopard attacks reported from different districts, concern is growing across Maharashtra over human safety, wildlife management and the effectiveness of current policies.
