Udaipur - A 16-year-old girl was suspected to have been mauled to death by a leopard at Undithal village of Gogunda block of Udaipur district on Thursday. The body was discovered among the bushes with injuries to her body and an arm bitten off.

According to the Station House Officer Gogunda, Shaitan Singh Nathawat, the deceased was a resident of Pani Ka Fala area of Undithal village. On Wednesday afternoon, she had gone to the nearby forests to graze goats. When the girl failed to return home till late night, family members set out in search in the nearby forest but found her body lying in a pool of blood inside the bushes the following morning. They immediately informed the Gogunda police following which a team reached the spot and shifted the body to the mortuary of the Gogunda CHC for postmortem.

Soon a team of forest department also reached the spot where locals demanded that cages be put up to catch the leopard as soon as possible.

Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) Ajay Chittora issued a statement saying "We have found the dead body of a 16-year-old girl with multiple wounds on her body. The villagers are claiming that it was a leopard but we can further comment on it once the postmortem report comes. However, as a precautionary measure, we have installed a cage in the area. But it is yet not clear that it was a leopard attack or the girl was a victim of someone's target".

According to the SHO, the deceased Kamla was 16 years old and the youngest among five children. Her father is a farmer. 

In a similar incident of leopard attack 11 days ago, a woman was killed in Jhadol village. The incident occurred at Kirat forest rea of Jhadol village where a leopard attacked 35-year-old Ramli Bai when she went into the forest to collect wood. Her body was found in two pieces.