Attacked by leopard, teen dies in Chhattisgarh

According to Satovisha Samajder, DFO Dhamtari, a leopard mauled Geetanjali Markam (13). “We have conducted the postmortem and it is an attack by a leopard. Presently our priority is to reduce the possibility of such incidents repeating. We have mobilised our ground team and are ensuring that the villagers don’t take their children with them into the forest. Our ground teams are also trying to cordon off the leopard from entering the villages,” Samajder said, adding the process of compensation for the family had also started.

Geetanjali, oldest of four siblings, was a middle class student and would venture into the forest each day to gather wood and to do other house chores, before going to school, villagers said. She was attacked atop a hillock which was right behind the village, where according to residents, everyone went looking for firewood.

In May, another 13-year-old girl had died after a leopard mauled her, forest officials said.