A leopard emerged from a sugarcane field and fatally attacked Mamta while she was working in a field at Gaderian Purwa village in the Sujauli range. The latest death comes amid a series of leopard attacks and unusually frequent wildlife movement around villages adjoining the Katarniaghat landscape.
Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh | September 26, 2026
A woman was killed by a leopard while working in a field near her home in Gaderian Purwa village in Bahraich district, adding to mounting concern over human-leopard conflict around the Katarniaghat Wildlife Division.
Forest officials identified the victim as Mamta, wife of Rajendra. PTI-based reports give her age as 35, although some other reports have described her as 32.
Leopard Emerged From Sugarcane Field
According to Katarniaghat Divisional Forest Officer Apurva Dixit, the attack occurred on Thursday evening while Mamta was working in a field close to her house.
The leopard emerged from an adjoining sugarcane field and attacked her, killing her at the spot. The Forest Department said the location was about two kilometres from the nearest forest.
Some local accounts provide a more detailed version, saying Mamta had gone to the field to pluck ridge gourd when the leopard suddenly attacked. Villagers reportedly rushed towards the site after an alarm was raised, following which the animal moved away.
Police subsequently sent the body for post-mortem examination.
Camera Traps Had Been Installed Minutes Earlier
In an extraordinary coincidence, Forest Department personnel had reportedly installed two camera traps just 100–200 metres from the attack site only minutes before the incident.
Dixit said the department had also conducted two wildlife-awareness campaigns in the Sujauli area in the preceding days.
Elephant patrols had been deployed as part of efforts to keep large carnivores away from settlements.
The measures indicate that authorities were already aware of heightened wildlife activity around the villages before the fatal attack.
Fourth Reported Leopard Fatality in About a Month
The death is part of a disturbing sequence of leopard attacks in Bahraich.
The Times of India reported it as the fourth human fatality from leopard attacks in the district within roughly a month.
Earlier in September, an elderly woman was killed in Sujauli after a leopard reportedly dragged her from her makeshift dwelling. Another recent fatality involved a three-year-old girl who died after suffering injuries in a leopard attack in Judwa village.
The repeated incidents have generated considerable fear among communities living around the forest.
Floods May Be Pushing Wildlife Towards Settlements
Forest officials have linked the recent increase in leopard movement around inhabited areas partly to flood conditions.
According to the Forest Department, flooding has increased the movement of leopards into human-used areas, prompting authorities to intensify surveillance and rescue operations.
Agricultural landscapes can also provide substantial cover for leopards. Tall crops such as sugarcane can allow the cats to move through areas that appear to people to be farmland rather than wildlife habitat.
However, the precise reason the leopard involved in Mamta’s death was present in the sugarcane field has not been established.
Leopard Found Resting on Cot in Another Village
The scale of wildlife movement in the area became particularly apparent just a day before the fatal attack.
On Wednesday evening, villagers reportedly discovered a leopard resting on an empty cot in the courtyard of a hut near a sand dump in Darogapurwa under the Motipur range of Katarniaghat Wildlife Division.
A local resident photographed the animal from hiding and alerted others. The leopard eventually left after villagers raised an alarm and moved towards nearby fields.
Tigress and Three Cubs Also Stop Traffic
Then, on Thursday morning — hours before Mamta was killed — motorists encountered a tigress accompanied by three cubs on the Motipur-Sujauli road.
Traffic temporarily stopped as people backed away and allowed the tiger family to remain undisturbed. The tigress and cubs eventually left the road and returned to the forest.
Although these tiger sightings are unrelated to the fatal leopard attack, together the incidents demonstrate the unusually high level of wildlife movement currently being reported across the Katarniaghat landscape.
Fear Growing Among Villagers
Residents say the situation is affecting everyday life.
Some shopkeepers in forest-fringe areas are reportedly opening later in the morning and closing earlier in the evening because of fears about encountering wild animals.
Forest personnel have intensified monitoring, while several leopards have also reportedly been captured safely in different parts of Bahraich in recent weeks.
The challenge now extends beyond locating individual animals.
With forests, agricultural fields and villages closely interwoven across the Katarniaghat landscape, authorities must determine how wildlife is moving through the area, identify locations where repeated encounters are occurring and reduce opportunities for people and large carnivores to come into dangerous proximity.
The death of Mamta — attacked while carrying out an ordinary activity close to her own home — illustrates just how serious that challenge has become.
Source credit: The CSR Journal report supplied for this story; details independently cross-checked against PTI reporting carried by , and other reports from Bahraich.
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