Stock image of leopard
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A 54-year-old woman, identified as Bhagwati Devi, was killed by a leopard in Nainital's Kathgodam police station area on Monday morning. This is the third death in a leopard attack in the Nainital district in just a month's time.

According to locals, the attack took place in district's Sunkot village when Devi was going to a temple with her son Navin. "The entire area is surrounded by forests and leopards have been spotted around the village earlier as well. Devi was going to the village temple with her son when the leopard suddenly jumped out of the forest and attacked her," said Manish Gauni, a panchayat member of the village.

Gauni added that Navin tried to scare away the leopard but it mauled Devi and critically injured her. "He was throwing stones at the leopard and screaming to scare him away. But the leopard did not leave. It severely injured Devi and left only when the locals gathered after hearing Navin's scream. They threw stones and chased the animal into the forest. Devi was later taken to her home where she died," Gauni added.

The local officials have said that they have sent Devi's body for post-mortem and are also trying to set up traps so that the leopard can be tracked. "We spoke to the locals who saw the leopard and are now planning to set up traps so that the animal can be tracked. We will also set up cameras to locate the animal," said an official present at the spot.

As reported by TOI earlier, a leopard had attacked and killed as many as 47 goats in a forest village named Jalal. Also, in the Okhalkand block, another leopard had killed a 12-year-old girl while she was washing clothes. While the forest department has said that it has deployed its teams and set up cameras at both locations in none of the cases has the leopards been traced yet.