A leopard attack that cut short five-year-old’s life, marred a birthday
Srinagar, Jun 06 (PTI): Five-year-old Mir Adda chose a ‘Barbie dress’, wore a crown and was excitedly calling for family to cut her brother’s birthday cake, minutes before a leopard took her away from the lawn of her house in the city’s outskirts, in a tragic case underlining human-animal conflict because of rapid forest destruction.
The Mir house at Om Pura, a locality just outside the city limits in the central district of Budgam, became the centre of attention as mourners’ swarmed the residence to express their condolences to the family of Adda, who loved to call herself “Adda Rani”.
“Adda had returned from her maternal family home as it was her brother Ali’s seventh birthday. She went upstairs and took out her favourite ‘Barbie dress’ for the occasion and wore a princess crown before stepping into the garden to ask her grandfather to finish his tea as they had to cut the cake,” said her maternal uncle, Aijaj Ahmed.
A few minutes later, Adda’s heart-wrenching shrieks pierced the silent evening of June 3. What followed was an exercise in futility as her family members, joined by neighbours and forest officials, only found some blood stains and a doll that she was carrying with her.
The next day Adda’s body parts were recovered from an adjacent nursery-turned-forest, leaving a grieving family behind.
They bid a tearful adieu to her as she was laid to rest on Saturday and people reminisced about her smile and banter. Her relatives, who could not visit due to COVID-19 restrictions, took to Twitter to mourn her death.
“Adda rani, she would call herself. Can’t forget the sound of her laughter and her running around. What a tragedy!” tweeted Sana Fazili, who stayed in the same locality.
She also posted a video, where Adda was copying a viral trend of social media. “Yeh mein hoon….yeh meri party ho rahi hai (This is me…and I am having a party).
Twitter and other social media platforms were full of users sympathizing with Adda and someone posted, “Heaven must be a beautiful place now as it has you Adda…”
Parents of the little girl are still in shock. This is the second tragedy in their family as Adda’s grandmother had passed away earlier this year.
The death of Adda, who was a student of DPS School, Srinagar, led to some suspensions in the Forest Department and pushed the Jammu and Kashmir administration to address the concerns of Ompura locality about wild animals.
“She was an extraordinary girl, always bubbly and with a smile. But what happened to her should not happen to anyone,” an inconsolable Ahmed said.
Her father, Muddasir had returned from Thailand last year following the outbreak of Covid.
Her school also expressed condolences and circulated a message saying, “We are heartbroken by the suffering and loss of the little one and we stand with the family in grief and solidarity. We pray for the eternal peace of the departed soul and healing for those who she left behind shattered and inconsolable.”
The sighting of wild animals was caught on camera but nobody had done anything, said Ahmed and other neighbours held the Forest Department responsible for the tragedy.
The Ompura area has a 20 acre nursery adjacent to it which is maintained by the Social Forestry Department.
“The purpose of the nursery was to grow saplings which could be later planted in the forest area. But they have not maintained the nursery and it has virtually turned into a forest.
“After her death, they started pruning trees and clearing the bushes which they should have done over the years. We feel the death of the child is the outcome of the Forest Department’s actions. This nursery is surrounded by human habitation and there are wild animals roaming freely in the nursery,” Ahmed said.