Leopard drags away boy, 7, from Kheri wheat field; body found after 7 hours

PILIBHIT: The partially eaten body of a seven-year-old boy was found seven hours after a leopard dragged him away from a wheat field where his parents were harvesting in Nibauria village of Lakhimpur Kheri district, police said on Sunday. The boy, Dilshad, was playing in the field with other children of labourers when the leopard attacked him around 6pm on Saturday. A joint team of police, forest officials, and villagers found his body, with one leg eaten by the animal.Bhupendra Singh, range officer of North Nighasan forest range, said, “The body has been sent for autopsy, and the case will be referred to the state forest administration for compensation to the parents, amounting to Rs 5 lakh, including Rs 4 lakh from the state disaster relief fund and Rs 1 lakh from the forest department.”He added, “The forest department has placed two cages with live bait to trap the leopard, and four cameras have been installed to identify the animal. Three teams of forest staff have been deployed in the area to monitor its movement, and drones are also being used.”This is the second such incident in the Singhai police station area in less than a month. Earlier, a seven-year-old girl, Paramjeet Kaur, was dragged away by a leopard from the courtyard of a farmhouse in Sidhauna village on March 24. Forest staff later found her body in a field.