A leopard attacked Kamla Devi, 56, when she gathered water in the Uttarakhand province in India. The leopard did not survive the attack because Devi, armed with an axe and a sickle, fought back.
“At first, I was terrified,” she said. “But, then I gathered my courage to fight back. I promised myself that this is not my last day here.”
“I fought head on with it for almost half an hour. Then I came to know it was dead,” she said.
Devi suffered three fractures and cuts. Despite the injuries, she walked almost a mile back to her village. The locals took her to the hospital and eventually transferred her to Srinagar. The CT scan showed no life-threatening injuries, and she is in stable condition.
“The condition of the woman is stable,” stated one doctor. “We have not counted the number of stitches, but it must be more than 100. She has sustained two fractures on the right hand and one on the left. She also has deep injuries on her head and legs.” The doctor went on to say that “walking one km with blood oozing out from your body speaks a lot about her strong will power to survive.”
The villagers visited Devi at the hospital to cheer her up and applaud her efforts.
“I will be writing to the Uttarakhand government for honouring Kamla,” said Rajesh Singh Uchholi. “Her story will inspire the hill women not to give up fight come what may.”
“Kamla lost her husband nearly three decades ago,” said village head Jagdish Negi. “She is somehow managing her family through farming.” Negi added, “Hers is a story which we have not heard before in Uttarakhand. We feel that the Uttarakhand government should honour her.”
Unfortunately, a leopard killed a woman in Uttarakhand and injured another in Rudraprayag.