A leopard, which is suspected to have preyed on at least eight people in the Gogunda-Jhadol -Madar region of Udaipur district in Rajasthan last month, was shot dead by forest officials on Friday.
The shooting of the “man-eater” panther has provided a sigh of relief to denizens in this tribal dominated belt of Mewar region that was under “terror reign” of the free prowling big cat for the past one month.
The first shot targeting the leopard was fired Thursday night but that left it just injured and the animal continued its ‘run to safety’ until the wee hours of Friday, when the chasing shooters and officials finally fired two rounds to kill it.
Wildlife sleuths said the animal had preyed on a woman in the Madar area two days ago.
However, officials are yet to confirm whether the killed leopard is the same man-eater for which a search operation has been on for the past several weeks.
Chief Conservator of Forests (CCF) Sunil Chidri told the media that we are yet to ascertain whether this was the man-eater responsible for the recent deaths as the preliminary investigations are still underway.
“While we are relieved that the leopard has been neutralized, it is too early to make an official declaration in this regard. We are conducting thorough investigations, and an official statement will be made soon,” he said.
The officials brought the dead panther from a hilltop where it was finally neutralized and sent to Udaipur for postmortem.