Overview

• Labourer Mihilal, 35, fought off a hidden leopard at a Jugnupur brick kiln by pinning it bare-handed until villagers drove it off with bricks
• Forest department teams tranquilised and captured the wounded male leopard after it injured several guards, a ranger and a villager during a second attack
• Postmortem of the Baburi male leopard revealed heavy internal bleeding from brick-induced injuries, causing its death at the buffer zone facility
• A female leopard rescued earlier from Jatpurwa village succumbed to severe haemorrhaging linked to prolonged infection despite veterinary intervention
• Officials warn that habitat encroachment and fragmentation are driving a rise in human-wildlife confrontations across northern Uttar Pradesh