Forest officials of Jharkhand’s Garhwa district have forwarded a proposal to the state forest department to declare a leopard as a man-eater after it claimed its fourth victim, a 12-year-old boy, on Wednesday evening.

Divisional forest officer (DFO), south, Garhwa, Shashi Kumar said that the proposal to declare the leopard as a man-eater has been sent to the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), wildlife, Jharkhand.

“A wild animal can be declared a man-eater only by PCCF, wildlife. After the leopard claimed its fourth victim, we had no option but to send the proposal on Thursday,” said Kumar.

The forest official claimed that based on drone camera footage and other scientific tools, they have identified that all the victims were mauled by the same leopard which has entered into Garhwa forest from the adjacent Palamau Tiger Reserve in the Palamau district. According to forest officials, the leopard killed Harendra Nayak at Kushwar village in Ramkanda block of Garhwa on Wednesday evening.

“The boy was playing with two other children around 300 feet from his house when the leopard attacked him. Two other children managed to escape and alerted the villagers,” said a forest official.

A six-year-old girl was killed by the leopard in Sevadih village of Ranka block on December 19, while another six-year-old was killed in Rodo village of Bhandariya block on December 14.

A 12-year-old girl was mauled to death in the Chipadohar area in Latehar district on December 10.