Body of girl killed in leopard attack found in tea estate in Valparai

Coimbatore: The body of a five-year-old girl who was attacked and dragged away by a leopard in Valparai on Friday was found in a private tea estate in the locality on Saturday. The victim was identified as Roshini Kumari, daughter of a guest worker from Jharkhand.

A forest officer said the girl's parents were working with a tea estate at Pachamalai near Valparai. "The child was playing in front of the row houses meant for tea estate workers when a leopard, hiding amidst nearby tea bushes, suddenly pounced on her and dragged her into the forest on Friday evening."

An intensive search was subsequently launched in the reserve forest by deploying a team of 20 forest personnel attached to the Valparai and Manambolly forest ranges, and sniffer dogs. The girl's body was found around 11.30am on Saturday in a private tea estate, about 700 metres away from her residence. The body was later sent to the govt hospital in Valparai for postmortem.

"We have provided an immediate solarium of Rs50,000 to the girl's family. The remaining Rs9.5 lakh will be provided after the completion of all formalities. We are planning to install camera traps in the area to monitor the leopard's movement. If needed, we will also place a cage to trap the carnivore," the officer said.