COIMBATORE: A five-year-old Assam native was killed by a leopard at Iyerpadi Estate in Valparai on Saturday evening. The deceased has been identified as Saiful Alam, son of Rojavelli from Assam who works in the tea estate.
The incident occurred when Saiful and his two siblings were playing outside their house at Iyerpadi estate around 7 .15 pm on Saturday. The parents were inside the house when the leopard dragged the boy into the tea bushes. A neighbour heard the noise and immediately informed the estate officer.
Based on the information given by estate officer to the Manombolly range officer, the team went to the location and after a search, the boy's body was found in the tea bushes.
Subsequently, the ranger and his team took the boy’s body to the Valparai government hospital and a postmortem will be performed on Sunday morning.
"In connection with such incidents, an awareness programme is being conducted among the estate workers in all estate areas. Meetings have also been held with the estate managers through the Coimbatore district collector and instructions have been given to estate authorities. In this estate too, the Valparai ranger raised awareness among the workers just two weeks ago. However, the workers are oblivious to this and are allowing children to play outside even after dark," said a forest department official.
Previous incidents of wild animal attacks
A five-year-old girl from Jharkhand was killed by a leopard at Pachamalai Estate (Tata coffee) on June 20, 2025.
An eight-year-old boy from Assam was killed by a sloth bear on August 11 at Waverly NEPC Estate.
"Apart from giving compensation, we have carried out awareness programs across all estates and schools. Stakeholder meeting was conducted under the chairmanship of district collector along with all line departments, estates representative for necessary measures for mitigating human - leopard conflict. The measures were discussed clearing tea bushes for 100 meters from labour line, better lighting, toilet facilities, fencing around the labour lines, submitting the migrant labours details and the native states on monthly basis to plan awareness in their native language etc.