Indore (Madhya Pradesh): An 11-month-old girl Bhoomika injured in a leopard attack here on March 11 succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment at a local private hospital at 3 am on Friday.
Six people were injured in the leopard attack including rescue team officials. Among the injured were three members of a caretaker's family who suffered severe injuries. Forest department had deposited Rs 2 lakh in their account for treatment of injured. But as per bills, Rs 4 lakh were spent on treatment.
On March 10, forest department had received information about presence of leopard at Jhabua farm house on Khandwa Road in the city. After this, the forest department team began rescue operation.
Even after six hours of hard work, the team was unsuccessful. To catch the leopard at night, the team tied a goat in the farm house and planted a cage but the leopard escaped.
On March 11, the team resumed the rescue work at 8 am. The team came to know that leopard entered Shivdham colony in Limbodi village where it was first sighted by a local resident who informed the department.
The leopard entered Sukhlal's house in an under-construction building. Here, the leopard was first seen by her elder daughter Aarti, who screamed.At this, the leopard attacked her. Caretaker Sukhlal ran to her rescue. By then, the leopard had caught the girl's hand in its jaw. Sukhlal was also attacked by leopard.
Seeing this, residents including his wife ran with the stick. Leopard hid in the bathroom of under-construction building. After this, the leopard also Sukhlal's 11-month-old granddaughter Bhoomika. Since then, the injured were undergoing treatment at Choithram Hospital but Bhoomika succumbed to injuries at 3 am on Friday.
According to doctors, the leopard’s teeth pierced into Bhoomika's chest. Due to this, she was unable to eat and was given fluid through a tube. The infection then spread to other parts of body and blood came up in the tube. She died as her condition worsened.
Caught a day after: The leopard was caught by 40-member rescue team 24 hours later. The leopard was taken to Indore zoo after being tranquilised and then released into forest after testing.
