Thane: A 14-year-old brave boy saved his 7-year-old cousin brother from a leopard at Tokawade village near Murbad taluka on Friday.
According to official sources, the incident took place at Karpatwadi village near Tokawade in Murbad taluka of Thane district. The forest dept team on Saturday found the same leopard’s carcass around 300 metres away from the spot.
The boys, identified as Harshad Viththal Bhala (7) and Naresh Kaluram Bhala (14), sustained hand and leg injuries. They are being treated at the primary health hospital in Murbad and their condition is stated to be stable.
Murbad is located about 75 kms from Mumbai. The attack took place when Harshad and his cousin Naresh went to their private land, close to their house. They went there to break the blackberry (jamun) from trees when a leapord attacked them.
The leopard attacked Harshad first. When Naresh saw that his cousin was in trouble, Naresh took stones and a wood stick. He started pelting stones at the big cat to save his brother.
While rescuing his younger brother from the jaws of the leopard, Naresh also suffered leg injuries.
When the forest officials learnt about the incident on Saturday, a team rushed to the spot to trace the big cat around 300 metres away from where the wild cat was spotted earlier.
A forest officer, who did not wish to be named, said, “As the incident took place near the village, we launched a hunt for the leopard. We didn’t have to go too far, just 300 metres away, we found the animal’s body.”
Officials said, “Initially, we thought the leopard was sleeping. So, as a preventive measure, we tried to monitor its movement for two hours. When there was no movement, we suspected the cat was died. When we went to check it, the leopard was dead.”
The team of forest officials informed their seniors, who rushed to the spot and sent the carcass for the postmortem to find the cause of the death. Notably, in the past too, several leopard attacks have been reported. In 2016, a leopard killed two people and injured a few others in Murbad.
