Overview
- The attack happened on Wednesday, July 22 at about 2:40–2:45 a.m. when a leopard dragged five-year-old Bhagyashree Sandeep Ware from a family sleeping near a cattle shed into a nearby sugarcane field.
- Villagers found the child and rushed her to the Rural Hospital, Nhavare, where doctors declared her dead; the body was taken for post-mortem and a panchnama was completed.
- Forest Department and police teams launched searches, deployed camera traps and trap cages, started drone and night patrolling, and said they are working to trace the animal.
- Local residents called the attack the second in Pimpalsuti and the fifth in eastern Shirur taluka, and they accused the Forest Department of failing to prevent repeated leopard sightings while demanding immediate capture.
- Pune officials have in the past used intensive monitoring and, when tranquilisation failed, lethal measures for suspected man-eater leopards; dense sugarcane cover and seasonal migrant labour increase risky encounters and shape both community fear and pressure on authorities.