Lucknow: A 48-year-old farmer was killed in a suspected leopard attack in Bahraich district, with his half-eaten body found nearly 4km inside the Katarniaghat forest after an eight-hour search, officials said on Saturday.The victim, Dashrath Yadav, a resident of Dharampur Bezha village in Murtiha, had left around 2pm on Friday. When he failed to return home by evening, his family alerted the forest department and local police.A joint search operation involving forest personnel, police and villagers was launched late in the evening. Around 10pm, Yadav’s body was found deep inside the forest. Officials said the body had been partially consumed by the wild animal.Divisional forest officer Apoorva Dixit said the preliminary investigation suggests that the farmer was likely attacked by a leopard while inside the forest.“As it happened inside the notified forest area, the victim’s family will be provided an ex gratia compensation of ₹4 lakh as per govt norms,” the DFO said. He also urged villagers not to venture alone into dense forest areas and to remain vigilant while grazing livestock or collecting forest produce.The victim’s brother, Omkar Yadav said Dashrath had gone to check his paddy nursery and graze cattle near the forest but did not return. “When we searched for him, we found his body with the leopard still nearby. We raised an alarm, after which the animal retreated and we brought the body back,” he said.Police sent the body for postmortem.
