Pauri Garhwal, Nov 4 (PTI) A day after a leopard killed a four-year-old child near Khandyusain here, villagers blocked the Pauri-Devprayag road on Wednesday, accusing the administration and the forest department of failing to prevent such attacks, officials said.
Police said the incident happened on Tuesday evening when the leopard attacked the child while she was playing in her home's courtyard. After not finding the baby, family members and villagers began a frantic search, calling out for the child. Her body was found in the bushes, approximately 100 meters from her home.
The villagers said wildlife attacks have been frequent lately, yet neither the forest department nor the administration has taken concrete measures to ease the prevailing fear.
Villagers said people now feel unsafe even in their own courtyards or near their homes; parents are afraid to let their young children go outside.
On Tuesday night, enraged villagers held BJP MLA Rajkumar Pori hostage inside his car after he went to visit family members. A 70-year-old woman climbed onto the MLA's car, as police struggled to get her down.
They also confined the Tehsildar of Pauri, Rajendra Goswami, and the forest department's SDO, Ayesha Bisht, inside a shop. However, police rescued them.
Beena Devi said, "They (authorities) keep telling us to stay indoors. How are we safe indoors when the animal is snatching children from right inside our homes? We are no longer safe even in our own homes."
"Our demand is that the administration and the district magistrate must come here, and we want that leopard killed right before our eyes. All they do is catch them from here and release them somewhere else...," she added.
The villagers said they would continue protesting until authorities acted on their demands.
