A teenager is reported to have died after falling in to a gully when a group of kids ran for shelter on seeing a leopard in a village near Bageshwar.
The incident was reported from Dyangan village situated about a kilometre from Bageshwar town on Friday evening. According to locals, about half a dozen youngsters were playing out in the open at about 5 PM in the village. While playing, they spotted a leopard and ran in panic looking for a secure shelter. In the panicked running, 15 year old Hemant Tangadiya fell into a gully. He is reported to have sustained head injury in the fall which resulted in his death from blood loss.
The high school student was a native of Bor village living in Dyangan village to attend to his studies.
It is pertinent to mention here that leopard-human conflict is not new to Bageshwar. Earlier, during the monsoon session of the Vidhan Sabha in September, the BJP MLA from Bageshwar, Chandan Ram Das had threatened to resign from his membership of the assembly if the issue of a man-eater leopard in his constituency was not resolved effectively within a week. Three children had been reportedly killed by a leopard in the area at that time. The MLA had withdrawn his threat to resign after receiving assurance of necessary action. Later in October, a leopard marked as a man-eater was killed by an authorised shooter in Bageshwar. However, the human-leopard conflict in the region has continued.
