Gujarat: Leopard mauls man to death in Junagadh forest

A 55-year-old man was mauled to death in a suspected leopard attack in Gujarat's Junagadh forest. This is the second such incident in the village in the last week.

Junagadh (Gujarat): A man was killed in a suspected leopard attack at a village in Gujarat's Junagadh district, a forest department official said on Saturday.

The deceased person has been identified as Omkar Giri (55) of the same district.

This is the second such incident in the village in the last one week, after a priest was similarly dragged into the forest by a wild animal, suspected to be a leopard, the official said.

"Prima facie, it seems like the man was mauled to death by a leopard. We had placed two cages to trap the animal after a similar incident was reported in the area under Dungar (north) forest range last week," said chief conservator of Forests (Junagadh Circle) S K Srivastava.

However, the leopard could not be trapped and officials caught hold of a lion instead, he said, adding that more traps will be placed in the area.

The body of Giri was recovered from some bushes at a distance of around 200 metres from the temple where he was sleeping, another official said.

Further investigations were underway, he added.

(With inputs from PTI)