Nashik: Shoot-on-sight orders have been given to kill a man-eating leopard that has killed seven persons and terrorised scores of villagers on the Nashik-Jalgaon border.

The wildlife department has brought in 22 sharpshooters — including leading hunter Nawab Shahfat Ali — from Hyderabad and from the local police, and kept cages in villages on Nashik-Jalgaon border.

Malegaon sub-divisional forest officer and ACF Jagdish Narayanrao Yedlawar, who is camping in the area, said that the wildlife department has stated that orders have been given to kill the wild cat. Hundreds of wildlife and forest officials are hunting the leopard.  Water resources minister Girish Mahajan had toured the area and consoled the families of the deceased last week and also directed all departments concerned to find the leopard.

Thirteen cages have also been kept at various places where the feline is known to prowl, along with 13 camera traps that have been installed in strategic locations.

So farm the leopard has killed six persons in Chalisgaon tehsil and three in Varkheda village of Chalisgaon. The latest victim was seven-year-old Kunal Prakash Ahire of Sakur village in Malegaon on Wednesday night. Kunal was sleeping near his mother, while he along with his family were warming themselves at a bonfire and, ironically, were discussing the same man-eater leopard. The leopard dragged off the boy into the fields and his remains were found later.

Meanwhile, three persons — Amol Kale (23), Rohit Waluj (21) and Vishnu Khule (6) — were attacked by a leopard in Kolhevadi shivar area of Sangamner tehsil of Ahmednagar on Thursday night. The victims were going on a motorcycle, when the leopard attacked them. They managed to ward off the leopard but suffered serious injuries, sources said.