A two-year-old boy was killed in a leopard attack in Nhalewadi village of Satara district on Saturday night, forest officials said.
He then went inside the house and spent some time playing with Jay. The incident sparked anger among villagers, who alleged that they had repeatedly alerted the forest department about leopard sightings in the area but that adequate preventive measures had not been taken.
Recalling the incident, Sandeep said he returned home around 7pm and was feeding cattle when the electricity supply was interrupted. Residents said they had submitted both written and verbal complaints and sought protection for families living close to agricultural fields. Satara taluka police inspector Nilesh Tambe said forest department officials and personnel reached the village after the incident and assured residents that efforts would be made to capture the leopard at the earliest.
The child, identified as Jay Sandeep Khandagale, was carried away by the leopard towards adjoining agricultural fields. His father, Sandeep Khandagale, raised the alarm after realising the boy had not returned home, prompting family members and villagers to search in the darkness. Sandeep, an agricultural labourer, lives with his family in a house surrounded by sugarcane fields.
