16-month-old girl killed by leopard in Mumbai’s Aarey colony

A 16-month-old girl was killed in a leopard attack in the forested area of Mumbai’s Aarey colony early on Monday morning when she was following her mother to the temple, officials said.

The victim Itika Akhilesh Lot was taken to the Seven Hills hospital at Marol, but she died on the way.

“The mother of the victim had been to a temple at 5.45am on Monday near their house and Itika followed her. She was attacked by a leopard. Many locals raised an alarm and the leopard ran away. Itika was taken to Seven Hills hospital. She had injuries on the neck and died due to trauma and bleeding,” G Mallikarjun, the director of Sanjay Gandhi National Park told the Hindustan Times.

The residents of Unit No. 15 are quite shocked and have demanded immediate trapping of the leopard.

Aarey colony is a green belt and is located next to Sanjay Gandhi National Park and leopards often migrate from the forest to Aarey, while some leopards stay in Aarey.

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Mallikarjun said that a trap will be laid for the leopard after the last rites of Itika.

“We took the body from Seven Hills and did a post mortem in Siddharth Hospital in Goregaon. We will hand over the body to her relatives soon,” said Round Forest officer, Narayan Mane.

On October 4, a four-year-old boy Himanshu Yadav was attacked by a leopard. He is a resident of Karandev pada and was going with his father Avdesh Yadav to see garba. He was treated at the Jogeshwari Truama Care centre.