Why leopard-attack fear is holding parts of Uttarakhand hostage, causing disruption to normal life

On 12 September, in Shrikot village of the district’s Pokhra block, locals recall four-year-old Riya playing in the verandah of her house with her mother around 8.30 pm. It was a happy day for the family; little Riya’s birthday. In the blink of an eye, their joy was replaced by fear, loss and mourning, as a leopard suddenly appeared and pounced on Riya, disappearing with the child with lightning speed. Villagers say they gave chase, but all they found was Riya’s mutilated body.

Weeks earlier, in Satpuli, also in Pauri Garhwal district, a leopard carried away the two-year-old son of a Nepali labourer working on a road-widening project. The child was taken from the roadside tent in which the family had been living, and his half-eaten body was recovered the next morning. Two days later, in another leopard attack in the same area, the animal tried to drag away a nine-year-old boy as he slept with his parents inside a tent. The boy’s father clung to him inside the tent, even as the animal pulled from without. Eventually, the leopard let go, driven back to the jungle by the shouts of the people present, and the boy, though injured, survived.

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The leopard, which had killed one child in Satpuli and injured another, was later captured by the Forest Department, locals told The Federal Desh. The animal that carried away Riya in Shrikot village was also trapped. The region breathed easy. But only for a week. On 19 September, in Rudraprayag district’s Basukedar area, a leopard attacked a 60-year-old woman, Dineshwari Devi, while she was cutting grass in the forest. She fought it off with a sickle, but sustained deep wounds on her head and body, requiring stitches. According to sources, this was Rudraprayag’s second leopard attack in two months. In July, in Dhanyo village of Agastyamuni, a leopard broke into a house at night and attacked Kusala Devi while she was sleeping. She was saved by her husband, who fought the animal bravely with a stick and forced the leopard to flee, leaving behind a badly injured Kusala Devi.

"Living in constant fear like this is a punishment. Once, a leopard attacked my aunt while she was working in the kitchen garden below our house. She fought bravely and survived, but the terror haunted our family for a long time,” said Rajesh Dobriyal, a resident of Kabra village.

Leopards are not new to the Uttarakhand region. If Corbett recorded his hunt for the Rudraprayag maneater in his writing, folk singer Narendra Singh Negi once wrote a song expressing the fear of a father who warns his daughter against going alone into the forest to collect grass or firewood because of a lurking man-eating leopard.

The remixed version of an old Garhwali folk song, which touched new heights of popularity a few years ago, included the refrain “Māri jālo mair, māri jālo mair,/ Garhwal māṅ bāg lagyo, bāga ki hwe ḍair,/Mera fwan baga re..”, which roughly translates to something like a ‘bag’ has appeared in Garhwal and everyone is living in fear of it, even Lansdowne (a popular tourist destination in the state) is under its terrifying shadow. While in Hindi ‘bag’ or ‘bagh’ would mean a tiger, in the hills of Uttarakhand, locals also refer to leopards as ‘bag’.

But whereas in the past, the animals would mostly hunt cattle or mountain dogs, said experts, in recent years, increasing conflict with wildlife has seen humans falling prey to leopards.

In The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, Corbett writes, “The people of Garhwal are Hindus, and as such cremate their dead… In normal times these rites are carried out very effectively; but when disease in epidemic form sweeps through the hills, and the inhabitants die faster than they can be disposed of, a very simple rite, which consists of placing a live coal in the mouth of the deceased, is performed in the village, and the body is then carried to the edge of the hill and cast into the valley below. A leopard, in an area in which his natural food is scarce, finding these bodies, very soon acquires a taste for human flesh, and when the disease dies down and normal conditions are re-established, he, very naturally, on finding his food-supply cut off, takes to killing human beings.”

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Official data from the Forest Department shows that between January 2000 and 31 May 2025, wildlife attacks killed 1,241 people in Uttarakhand. Of these, 539 deaths were attributed to leopard attacks. In addition, 2,077 people were seriously injured by leopards.

According to Joy Hukil, a government-authorised hunter who has killed 47 man-eating leopards and captured seven alive, "Leopards roam the mountains all day, covering kilometers, but by evening they seek easy food near settlements. At night, in a five-square-km area, you can spot between one to six leopards."

Internal data of the state wildlife department accessed by The Federal Desh indicates the presence of approximately 2,300 leopards in Uttarakhand. Hukil, however, estimates the number to be no less than 5,000. "We have 16,500 villages here, not counting towns. On average, reports of leopard sightings or presence come from every two to four villages. So the actual population must be far higher,” he reasoned.

A forest department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted to a rise in the leopard population in the state. "In the past, there used to be one leopard in a 15–20 sq.m area. Now, you can find one within just a 1–1.5 km area,” he said.

Experts cite various reasons for the increasing human-animal conflict in the state.

"Food availability in the forests has declined. That’s why leopards move into human areas. Another reason is hunting, because of which prey species like chital, sambar, and barking deer are fewer in the hills. In contrast, in Haridwar’s forests, these prey animals are abundant, so leopards there don’t target humans despite their large numbers,” claimed Dr. Bivash Pandav, head scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India (Dehradun).

Agreeing that there was a food scarcity for the leopards because of their rising numbers, Hukil added, "Stronger leopards dominate inside the jungle, so weaker ones come to the villages for easy prey. That’s why attacks on children and women are increasing."

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Meanwhile, in the hills of Uttarakhand, villagers say they live daily in fear of leopard attacks. Earlier this month, Poonam Kaintura, a district panchayat member from Chaubattakhal (a tehsil in Pauri Garhwal district), posted a video of a leopard pair on Facebook, warning villagers to stay alert. The fear has not only disrupted normal life — prompting parents to keep children away from schools and even forcing the administration at times to close schools and anganwadi centres to avoid attacks — but it is encouraging people to move out of remote villages already hit by migration of locals looking for a better life, say social sector workers.

The highest numbers of deaths and injuries have been reported in Pauri Garhwal, which, according to reports by the state migration commission, has borne the brunt of migration in recent years.

"Near Chaubattakhal, the village of Bharatpur has become completely deserted due to leopard fear—no humans live there now. Nearby villages are also rapidly emptying out,” claimed Sudhir Sundariyal, a social worker associated with the Feelgood Trust, a charitable organisation.

The migration has, in a way, aided the leopards, making it easier for them to lurk near human settlements in search of prey. "Because migration has emptied villages, farming has declined, allowing bushes to grow unchecked near settlements. Leopards use these thickets as cover to hide and hunt humans easily,” said Pandav.

This month, Feelgood, along with another social sector organisation, Dhaad, submitted a memorandum to the state government in Dehradun. Titled ‘Save Villages from Leopards’, the memorandum demanded Rs 5 lakh compensation for families of those killed by wild animals and alternative jobs for dependents, among others.

Residents of villages in Chaubattakhal, meanwhile, gathered in protest outside the block headquarters last week, demanding government action through the local administration. Kaintura, who had been at the forefront of the protests, alleged, "The Forest Department doesn’t even know the real number of leopards in Garhwal. They should tell us clearly. We also demand that former soldiers [living in villages] be given gun licenses to protect residents from such wild animals. How long can we keep waiting for help from the forest department or the administration [to take action]?"

The Federal Desh has reached the office of the chief wildlife warden, Uttarakhand, over email for a response on the issue. The report will be updated if a response is received.

According to Dr. Prem Bahukhandi, a sociologist based in Pauri Garhwal, "The government must first reveal the actual number of leopards and their distribution. If their numbers are too high, then culling is inevitable. At the same time, the forest department should ensure enough prey inside forests so leopards don’t enter villages." Talking about the need for striking a balance between animal conservation and human safety, Bahukhandi added, “large sanctuaries should be created in the hills and all leopards relocated there. This would also boost tourism and revenue”.

For immediate action, Dr. Bahukhandi suggested the clearing of “invasive wild bushes like lantana, parthenium and others. Leopards hide in these. MGNREGA work should be started to remove these.”

In The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag, Corbett writes, “No curfew order has ever been more strictly enforced, and more implicitly obeyed, than the curfew imposed by the man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag.” Years later, when he meets a young man who had been a child at the time Corbett killed the animal, he told the writer of the “fair that is held every year at Rudraprayag to commemorate the death of the man-eater”. He added: “I shall tell all the people I meet there that I have seen and had speech with you.” A century later, many villages in Uttarakhand are again praying for deliverance from the leopards’ recent reign of terror.