Fear grips CG villages after leopard kills man in Dhamtari, attacks child in Gariyaband

Raipur: In the remote hills surrounding Kormud village, Chauthram Mandavi stepped out on Wednesday evening for a simple, private necessity. He never made it back home.When searchers found his body Thursday morning on a hillock near Belargaon in Dhamtari district, the scene was gruesome: one hand missing, a leg severed, abdomen ripped open. Drag marks led away from the body through the hilly forest terrain. The suspicion among villagers was immediate and terrifying: a leopard had attacked and dragged him.Mandavi, 55, was the latest victim in a wave of leopard attacks that has sent panic rippling through forested pockets across Chhattisgarh. Within hours of his death, another attack occurred in Chhura block in neighbouring Gariyaband district, where a young girl was bitten on the neck by a leopard. The attack unfolded on Wednesday around 6 pm when Ramprasad, a labourer from Parsapani village, took his family to the Kurubhatha village pond for a bath. While they were in the water, a leopard allegedly hiding nearby suddenly pounced on his daughter, Lakshmi, biting her on the neck. The child’s screams alerted her family. They rushed to her aid, forcing the leopard to flee. Lakshmi suffered serious neck injuries and was rushed to the district hospital before being transferred to Raipur in critical condition.Three children in Gariyaband had already came under attack just last week.The back-to-back incidents have intensified fears that leopards are increasingly moving closer to human settlements.Kormud village, where Mandavi lived, is nestled among dense forests and rugged hills that serve as natural habitats for leopards and bears. Residents say the intense summer heat and shrinking water sources may be forcing the animals closer to villages in search of prey — and making them more aggressive.The killing revived dark memories in the region. Locals recalled an earlier tragedy when a leopard allegedly lifted a child from the courtyard of a house; the child’s remains were later recovered from nearby hills.Villagers say the leopard in their area previously preyed on dogs and cattle but recently started attacking children — a shift that has raised frightening suspicions that the animal may be turning into a man-eater.Life in these forest villages has changed quickly. People are avoiding stepping out after dusk. Children and women are being warned against moving alone near forest fringes. The forest department has intensified surveillance and advised residents not to venture into nearby forest and hill areas alone, especially after sunset.