In yet another incident of leopard attacks in India's second largest city Mumbai, which is home to at least 35 leopards, a big cat jumped over a 7ft-high compound-wall and barbed wire fence to attack a dog on the steps of the Bombay Veterinary College (BVC) girls' hostel on Friday (June 9) morning.
Leopard Enters Indian City Hospital, Injures Six; Authorities Close Down Schools, Colleges [VIDEO]
College authorities confirmed the incident of Monday and even shared the CCTV footage with the media. The CCTV footage shows that the leopard came in at about 4:22 am in the morning. It attacked the dog and nailed it to the ground for about 15 seconds after which it released the canine and ran away. While another dog is seen running frantically in the background, the dog that was attacked earlier tried to escape by running in the opposite direction of the leopard. But later, the leopard followed the dog and mauled it to death.
As the hostel is located within the Aarey Colony and close to Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the area has a history of several leopard attacks. Though the earlier attacks were on children this is the first time that a dog is being attacked.
"We believe the leopard climbed a tree and jumped into the campus to look for dogs. There are around eight stray dogs within the 6,000 square-foot girls hostel." said Dr Ashish Paturkar, dean of the college, quoted by the Hindustan Times.
Putarkar said that the dog mauled by the leopard has not been found. "There is a chance the dog has been eaten by the big cat, but we are not sure," he said, adding that there was no need for panic.
Meanwhile, the college authorities have already written to the forest authorities. "We have about 60 girls living in the hostel and all of them are fond of strays and feed them regularly. We had a meeting with the forest department over the weekend. They asked the girls not to panic," Paturkar said.
"We have put in place strict rules and installed high-mast lights. There is security outside the hostel throughout the night," he added.
The forest officials have conducted an awareness drive and sensitised the girls about the danger of living in close proximity to leopards.
Back in May, the forest officials had started probing two recent leopard attacks on children in Aarey Milk Colony. While in May, a leopard attacked a three-year-old boy who escaped when a local raised an alarm, in another case on March 21, a woman was able to snatch away her three-year-old from the jaws of a leopard in the nick of time. In both cases, the children suffered deep injuries on their chest, legs and throat.
