Kavre, January 14

A leopard attacked the four-year-old son of Shyam Shrestha of Ranipani, Panchkhal municipality-11, on September 8, 2010 in Kavre.

The wild beast took the child while he was having dinner at his house and his body was recovered from a farmland near a local health post the following morning.

A month after the scary incident, the body of six-year-old Rishi Ram, son of Naba Raj Ghimire of Anekot, was found half-consumed in the local Jamune forest. Rishi, who had gone to play with his friends a day before was found killed by a leopard the next morning.

According to data, as many as eight children have been killed in leopard attacks in the district in the past five years. Of the total 17 attacks by wild animals, eight were leopard attacks, according to District Forest Office.

According to Krishna Bahadur Thapa, an officer at DFO, the victims have been identified as Dil Kumar Shrestha, 4, of Panchkhal Municipality, Rishi Ram Ghimire of Anekot, Salina Pandey, 7, of Devbhumi Baluwa-8, Dipika Bista of Sanga-2, Nasikasthan, Ramila Khanal, 3, of Khanalthok-3, Nabin Bhurtel, 5, and Mohan Bhurtel, 2, of Methinkot-5 of the district.

Folks living near the incident sites do not allow their children out of the house in the evening. Many of them drop and pick up their children from schools every day.

Kanchan Acharya of Baluwa regretted that though he had urged the concerned authority to provide security, no one had bothered.

According to District Forest Office, the families of the eight deceased children have already received government relief.

The government provided Rs 50,000 each to families of the deceased before 2012, Rs 150,000 between 2012-2014 and Rs 5,0,000 for the families of the deceased killed after 2014 respectively.