Three people were injured after a leopard attacked them in the South Forest Division Range in Madhya Pradesh’s Shahdol area on Sunday. The incident took place when a group of people were picnicking near the Son River in the Khitauli beat of Shahdol range.
The victims, attacked by the leopard, have been taken to a hospital, officials said.
A 30-second video clip, which was shot by one of the victims, is going viral on social media. It shows the leopard pouncing on the picnickers – who initially instigated the big cat.
The video starts with the group of people calling the leopard – who was lurking in the bushes – saying “aaja aaja” (come come) and taking a video. However, their fun and games quickly turned into horror after the leopard came running and pounced on them.
The big cat attacked two people and then dragged another person to the ground, trying to rip into him. The group of picnickers started screaming and can be heard yelling “bhaag” (run) in the video. Within seconds, the leopard ran away before the video cut off.
According to sub-divisional forest officer, Shahdol, Badshah Rawat, another incident of a tiger attack had taken place in the area a few days back, following which they had advised people to not venture into the forests.
“Advisory has been issued. We have asked officials to alert villagers and other people not to go into the forests. A control room has also been set up to help people in such incidents,” he said.
