Lakhimpur Kheri, Oct. 16 -- Two children killed in leopard attacks within three days have renewed fear in villages along the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve buffer zone, where nine people, including six minors, have died in such attacks between April 2026 and October 14, according to forest officials. The back-to-back deaths have exposed the difficulties of preventing attacks in a landscape dominated by dense sugarcane fields, scattered settlements and an understaffed forest force.

Seven-year-old Saniya was killed on October 12 after a leopard dragged her from outside her house in Bojhiya village under the Dhaurahra forest range. Her mutilated body was found in a sugarcane field the following morning. On the night of October 14, six-year-old Navjot...