Sardarpur (Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh): The people near forest area live in constant fear of attacks by leopards, which enter their villages from forests around Amjhera under Sardarpur forest range. However, forest department has not made permanent arrangements to stop leopard attacks. Though a cage has been kept in the forest area, it has not helped much.
About 4 children were killed by leopards in last 1.5 years. On February 23, 2020 leopard killed 7-year-old Anand who was sleeping with his father guarding gram crops in Nayapura. On April 11, 2020, 8-year-old girl Hazari was killed by a leopard in Hathipawa Vangram. Similarly, on November 11, 2020, in the forest village Ganiara, 7-year old girl Gudiya was killed by a leopard.
On July 7 midnight, 8-year-old Raj was sleeping outside his house with his family, when leopard picked him up, took it to a ditch, tore the body into three parts and ate it.
Whenever the forest department officials are asked about permanent protection measures to prevent leopard attacks, the rote answer is that people should not sleep outside the house and avoid going to farms and forests at night.
Villagers often question whether they should leave their village and give up farming, stop working specially when they have no means of livelihood. The attempts made to contact district forest officer YP Singh and SDO Santosh Ranchod met with no response.
