Man found dead, locals suspect animal attack

Daltonganj: Mystery surrounds the death of a 60-year-old villager, Mushtaq Khan, on Sunday morning inside the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) with the family members claiming that the victim was killed by a wild animal but the sanctuary’s authorities denied the claim. While locals alleged that Khan was attacked by a leopard, PTR authorities expressed doubt, saying the circumstantial evidence did not support an animal attack.
Khan’s family and locals suspected the same leopard, which have killed at least four children in Latehar and Garhwa districts, have killed him. PTR deputy director (north division) Ashish said, “We have reasons to disbelieve the claim of the family and the locals that Khan was killed by an animal. The tongue of the deceased is missing while the face is intact. There is no mark of any violent attack. Is wildlife so clinically precise to only extract the tongue of the deceased leaving lips, cheeks, eyes nose ears intact?” He also said forest guards found some animal’s pugmarks but they weren’t of a leopard. TNN