A seven-year-old boy was killed in a lioness attack near Ghantiyan village in Bagasara taluka, triggering outrage among residents who later staged a protest against the Forest Department. The victim, Nanu Ram Dinesh Mankar, belonged to a family from Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district that had been travelling to Amreli for nearly 15 years during the farming season to work as agricultural labourers.
According to forest officials, the incident occurred around 8 pm on Thursday when the child stepped out to relieve himself. A sub-adult lioness, believed to be around three to four years old and roaming in the area, allegedly attacked him and dragged him nearly a kilometre into a nearby reserved forest.
Assistant Conservator of Forest (Social Forestry) Rajan Jadav said forest teams rushed to the spot and launched a search operation immediately after receiving information about the attack. The boy’s body was recovered around 9 pm. By then, hundreds of villagers and residents from nearby areas had gathered and begun protesting, accusing the Forest Department of failing to protect people from recurring wildlife threats.
Following the incident, forest officials captured a lioness and two cubs suspected to be linked to the fatal attack. Ghantiyan village is located along the Bagasara–Visavadar border, a region known for frequent lion movement from the Gir landscape.
