Surat: An eight-year-old girl, Nikita Vasava, was killed by a leopard in Vadi Faliya village of Umarpada taluka in Surat on Wednesday morning. This was the second incident of leopard attack in last one month in the village. Earlier, a leopard had attacked a boy and injured him.
The incident took place when Nikita and two of her friends had gone to attend nature's call in the open field. The leopard grabbed Nikita by the waist and dragged her towards the forest. When the other two girls screamed for help, villagers came running and chased the leopard.
With villagers in pursuit the wild cat left behind the girl and disappeared into the forest. However, Nikita had already died before villagers could reach her. Nikita was the eldest of three siblings. She has a younger sister and a five-month-old brother.
Vadi village is the native of former Gujarat assembly speaker and minister for tribal development Ganpat Vasava, who was present in the village when the incident took place. Vasava declared Rs 4 lakh compensation to the family of the deceased girl on behalf of the state government
Talking to TOI Vasava said, "A leopard had entered the village and injured a boy 10 days ago. That leopard was later caged."
"Today, we have put up five more cages to catch the leopards in the area. We have also asked forest department to propagate awareness about leopard attacks," he added.