COIMBATORE: The body of a four-year-old girl, M Roshini Kumari, who was dragged away and killed by a leopard, was found on Saturday morning, nearly 17 hours after the tragic incident occurred near her home at Pachamalai in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) near Valparai.
The child, daughter of Manoj Munda and Monica Devi from Jharkhand, was taken by the leopard around 6.30pm on Friday evening while she was standing with her mother, who was fetching water near their home. The big cat dragged her into nearby tea fields in full view of her mother.
After an overnight search involving 40 forest department personnel, drones, and a sniffer dog named Bairava, the girl’s remains were found around 11.30am on Saturday 700 metres from her house, in a eucalyptus grove. Shockingly, parts of her body had been partially consumed by the leopard.
Following recovery, her body was taken to the Valparai Government Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
“This is the first human fatality in the Pachamalai area in recent times, and no incidents of cattle kills have been reported either,” said a forest department official. “We are placing 20 camera traps to monitor the leopard’s movements, and are yet to decide on installing a cage. The search was carried out across a two-kilometre radius.”
Officials, however, clarified that the leopard is not yet considered a man-eater, as only a single incident involving human death and consumption has occurred so far.
Roshini’s family, who had moved to the area a year ago for tea estate work, will receive Rs 50,000 as initial compensation, with the remaining Rs 9.5 lakh to be disbursed on Sunday.