A tragic incident has unfolded in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore district, where a four-year-old girl was attacked and dragged away by a leopard. The harrowing event occurred on Wednesday evening in the hill town of Valparai, sending shockwaves through the local community and prompting an extensive search operation.

The young girl, identified as Roshini Kumari, was playing outside her home in Pachamalai South, a tea estate in the Valparai hills. Her parents, Manoj Munda and Monica Devi, are migrant workers from Jharkhand. According to reports, the leopard emerged from the nearby forest and seized Roshini in full view of her mother before disappearing back into the dense wilderness. Monica Devi's screams alerted other estate workers, who immediately began a search for the child.

Forest officials and local police have launched a large-scale combing operation across the hilly terrain. Searchlights, drones, and sniffer dogs are being used to aid the effort to locate the girl. As of Friday night, Roshini had not been found, and her condition remains uncertain, according to ABP Live News.

The attack has triggered widespread panic among residents, highlighting the increasing human-animal conflict in the forest-bordering regions of Tamil Nadu. Concerns are rising, particularly involving encounters with leopards and elephants. In response to these growing dangers, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department has been installing AI-based camera alert systems in sensitive zones to detect wildlife movement and provide real-time warnings to residents.

Authorities are appealing to the public to remain calm and have advised residents to stay indoors after dark and keep children under close supervision. The focus remains on locating the child and safely tracking the leopard.

The Times of India reports that the Anamalai Tiger Reserve is also involved in the search, with forest officials combing the tea estate and adjacent reserve forest. The incident occurred in front of a line of houses for tea estate workers, with the leopard believed to have been hiding in the tea bushes before the attack.

KalingaTV notes that the rising cases of man-animal conflict have prompted the forest department to install AI-based camera systems to detect wildlife movement and warn residents. They have also reiterated the advice for locals to stay indoors after dark and supervise their children closely.

Daijiworld.com reports that the intense search operation involves drones, sniffer dogs, and searchlights to comb the dense, hilly terrain. A senior police officer stated that forest officials and police are jointly searching the area.

This unfortunate event underscores the ongoing challenges of human-wildlife interaction and the need for effective measures to protect both communities and wildlife in these vulnerable areas.