Overview
- A 60-year-old farmer, Babu Naranbhai Vaja, says he used a sickle and a spear to kill a leopard that injured him and his 27-year-old son, Shardul, near their home in Gangda village, Gir Somnath.
- Forest authorities registered a case under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, noting the leopard’s Schedule I status and launching a formal investigation.
- Both men were taken to Una Government Hospital and then shifted to a private facility, where they remain under treatment with conditions reported as stable.
- Officials recovered the weapons and sent the leopard’s carcass for post-mortem, with results expected to help establish the sequence of events.
- Investigators are assessing whether the leopard initiated the attack or was provoked, set against a regional rise in leopard numbers reported in the 2023 census.