A 13-year-old boy was killed in a tiger attack in Shirur taluka on Sunday afternoon, the fifth such death in Pune district this year. After the incident, the villagers set fire to a vehicle belonging to the forest department and the department’s Rapid Reaction Force office, officials said.
The situation remained tense as police were deployed to maintain law and order.
Forest department officials identified the deceased as Rohan Bombay, the son of a farmer from Pembarkhead village, which is located about 75 km from Pune city.
Assistant Forest Conservator Smita Rajhans said, “Rohan was playing in the open space in front of his farm house. At around 3.45 pm, a leopard attacked him and he was mortally injured. After the incident, a group of villagers set fire to a forest department vehicle as well as the Rapid Response Force office set up at Pembarkhead village in response to the multiple incidents of human-leopard conflict. A majority of the items in the office were destroyed in the fire.”
Officials said the situation remained tense in the village on Sunday afternoon, prompting authorities to deploy police forces to maintain law and order.
This is the second death in the tiger attack on the village of Pembraked and the third in the region within a period of one month.
In the incident that took place on October 12, Shivanya Shailesh Bombay (5 years old) was killed in a tiger attack in the same village of Pembarkhead. On October 22, a 70-year-old woman, Bhagobhai Rangnath Jadhav, was murdered in Jambut village, just seven kilometers away.
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In April, an 85-year-old woman was killed in a tiger attack on a village in Shirur taluka. In the last week of September, a six-year-old boy who was studying in an open space in front of a house in Junnar taluka village was killed by a leopard.
As many as eight deaths in human-leopard conflict incidents were reported in Pune district in 2024, including five deaths of children. This was the second highest toll reported in a year in the past 20 years.
After successive incidents of human-leopard conflict last year, the forest department issued a red alert for 13 villages in an area of ​​five square kilometers in Junnar taluka. Residents of these villages were asked not to go out before nine in the morning and after five in the evening.
Subsequently, the Pune District Collector informed more than 230 villages of four talukas in Pune district – Junnar, Ambegaon, Shirur and Khed – as disaster-prone due to frequent incidents of human-leopard conflicts.
Considering the various driving factors of such conflicts in the region, the forest department has focused on creating awareness and sensitizing the villagers.
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The state forest department has sent a proposal to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to sterilize 36 female and 11 male tigers as a targeted birth control method to bring down the rate of increase in tiger numbers.
(tags for translation)Cheetah attack
