Overview

• On June 18, a leopard seized 4-year-old Roshni from outside her home in Valparai’s Pachamalai tea estate, prompting a joint forest and police search.
• Forest teams used drones, sniffer dogs and searchlights to comb dense terrain before locating her remains nearly 5 km from the estate on June 21.
• Roshni was the daughter of migrant workers from Jharkhand, underscoring the vulnerability of plantation labour families at forest fringes.
• This is the third fatal leopard attack on children in Valparai in the past two years, following incidents in October 2024 and April 2023.
• The Tamil Nadu Forest Department has installed AI-based camera alert systems and experts are urging improved lighting and fencing to reduce human-wildlife clashes.