A leopard was beaten to death in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district after it attacked a home guard on Friday afternoon.

The villagers of Aman Nagar surrounded the leopard in a field and beat it with lathis after it pounced on 50-year-old Surendra Singh.

Talking to reporters from Meerut District Hospital on Saturday, Surendra Singh said he was on his way to Kiratpur police station to join duty when the animal attacked him.

“I had walked about 50 metres from my house when the leopard lurking in the sugarcane field pounced on me. As I tried to free myself from its grip, my children saw my predicament and ran to save me. My elder daughter held the leopard by its legs and got injured. A while later, some villagers gathered at the spot and saved us,” Surendra Singh, who sustained serious injuries on his
right arm and shoulder, said.

Gyan Singh, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Bijnor, said: “The doctors referred the home guard to Meerut District Hospital after seeing his injuries. We are inquiring about the incident.”

Disha, the 20-year-old daughter of Surendra Singh, was admitted to Bijnor District Hospital with leg injuries and discharged after a few hours.

“We were walking towards our tubewell when we heard an unusual sound and ran in that direction. We saw the leopard trying to overpower my father. I somehow held the two rear legs of the animals and didn’t leave them for about 10 minutes. My sister Reshu, 14, and brother Dipanshu, 18, were also there and fought with the animal. They have received scratches on their hands,” she said.

“Soon the villagers came to rescue us and started hitting the animal with lathis when it tried to attack them,” she added.

The DFO said the dead animal had been taken to Kiratpur garden. “The vets will soon conduct a post-mortem,” he said.

There are many forests in Bijnor district, including Amangarh Tiger Reserve, that serve as a buffer area of the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand.

Experts said the animals were straying into human habitats for food as large parts of the forest are waterlogged because of incessant rain.

The residents of over 50 villages in the district have been living in fear of wolves and leopards since March this year. The wolves have killed eight villagers so far and injured around 60.