DEHRADUN: Anger boiled over in Khandusain village of Uttarakhand’s Pauri district after a leopard killed a seven-year-old girl. When the local BJP MLA arrived, furious villagers surrounded his vehicle and held it there for about 90 minutes, raising slogans against the government and the Forest Department. The MLA remained inside the car as police tried to calm the crowd.
Human-wildlife conflict in Uttarakhand is increasingly reaching villages and home courtyards, with residents reporting attacks by leopards in broad daylight. The latest tragedy occurred in Khandusain village in Pauri district, where a seven-year-old girl was killed.
The child was in the courtyard of her home in the evening when a leopard pounced on her and dragged her into nearby bushes, according to local accounts. Villagers rushed to help after hearing the family’s cries, but she had died.
The killing triggered anger among residents. When the local BJP MLA arrived, villagers—many of them women—surrounded his vehicle and raised slogans against the government and Forest Department.
Residents said repeated requests for stronger patrols and cages had brought little more than assurances. “Promises are not enough. The leopard must be captured immediately,” villagers demanded.
Forest Department figures indicate that leopard attacks killed 219 people and injured 1,019 in Uttarakhand between 2014 and 2024. A separate government report puts the toll for the period at 214 deaths and 1,006 injuries.
The wider toll varies across reports. A study by Professor Vishwambhar Prasad Sati of Mizoram University estimates that wildlife attacks killed 954 people between 2000 and 2025, with 438 deaths recorded in the six years from 2020 to 2025. It attributes 548 deaths and 2,127 injuries during the period to leopards. Another dataset records 1,241 wildlife-attack deaths from January 2000 to May 2025, including 539 caused by leopards.
Ranganath Pandey, a wildlife expert and former deputy director of the Uttarakhand Forest Department, cited three factors behind the rising conflict. Tiger numbers in Corbett and Rajaji increased from 442 in 2018 to more than 560 in 2023, he said, pushing leopards out of core forest areas. "About 79% of Uttarakhand’s leopards now live outside protected areas," Pandey told TNIE.
He also pointed to migration from hill villages. Abandoned homes and overgrown vegetation, he said, provide leopards with suitable shelter.
Pauri, which has the state’s highest leopard population, is among the worst-affected districts. Residents in Pauri, Almora, Tehri and Nainital say attacks have become more frequent and leopards are appearing near homes, schools and village paths—not just at forest edges after dark.
Forest Department figures cited in the report say more than 20 people have been killed in leopard attacks in Uttarakhand so far this year, many of them children aged five to 12. Villagers are now calling for lasting safety measures, including solar fencing, streetlights and effective monitoring.
Residents are demanding that the leopard be declared a man-eater and captured or killed without delay. They have also called for compensation of ₹10 lakh for the affected family, solar fencing and streetlights in the village, and a permanent Forest Department team.
