Hundreds of local residents held a road blockade at the Pimparkhed village in Shirur on the Pune-Nashik highway Monday morning, demanding a permanent solution to the human-leopard conflict in the Junnar forest division of Maharashtra.

The roadblock, which led to the police diverting traffic on the highway, came a day after a 13-year-old boy was mauled to death by a leopard in Pimparkhed village of Shirur taluka Sunday afternoon.

The victim, Rohan Vilas Bombe, was the fifth casualty in leopard attacks in the Pune district this year. This was also the second death in a leopard attack in the Pimparkhed village and the third in the area this month.

After the incident, angry villagers set the forest department vehicle and the office of the department’s Rapid Response Force on fire. The

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