Man injured in Leopard attack when he tries to save pet dog

A 29-year-old survived a leopard attack after he came face to face with the big cat, which had attacked his pet dog tied outside the house located within the forest boundary in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Suraj Gawai a resident of Rahul Nagar slums located on the hillocks near Shankar tekdi in Mulund West. Gawai sustained injuries and is undergoing treatment at KEM Hospital.

As per Sandip Gawai, the brother of the victim, they were asleep when around 2 have they heard their pet Rottweiler barking loudly. “Suraj thought there was some issue and as soon as he opened the door he saw the leopard trying to attack the dog. But it attacked him instead,” said Sandip.

Jitendra Ramgaonkar, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Thane, said that a team of forest staff visited the spot where the incident occurred and the house was found to be located within the forest boundary. “These are houses that have been built after being encroached upon forest land and since there are leopards known to be moving in the area, the dog should not have been tied up outside the house,” he said.

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Pawan Sharma, Wildlife Warden for Thane as well as president of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), said the incident has yet again highlighted the issue of encroachments inside the forest land. “Along with Thane forest department, we will install camera traps to monitor the leopard movements. Also, we have spoken to locals staying in the vicinity asking them to take precautions,” he said.

Sonu Singh, a member of Mumbaikars for SGNP a group that works on creating awareness on the issue of the human-leopard conflict said that tying a dog outside the house, which is located in forest area is inviting trouble. The victim happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Dr Avinash Supe, Dean of KEM Hospital, said, “Gawai has injuries over right lower eyelid and scalp but he is in a stable condition. He has undergone a general plastic surgery where plastic surgeon sutured the contused wound while his scalp wound too was sutured. Since he was feeling giddy after taking scalp suture he was admitted.”