<p>A Buddhist monk has been killed by a leopard while meditating in a protected forest for the big cats, the fifth such attack in the area this month, Indian police said on Thursday.</p>.<p>Rahul Walke Bodhi was seated beneath a tree in Ramdegi forest in western India for morning prayers on Tuesday when the leopard pounced.</p>.<p>The 35-year-old monk was fatally injured, police in Maharashtra state said. Two other devotees meditating with him at the time escaped unscathed to alert police, who started a search for his body.</p>.<p>"His badly mauled body was found further into the forest, indicating the animal tried to drag it along," Krisna Tiwari, a senior police officer in the region, told AFP.</p>.<p>The forest, roughly 825 kilometres (510 miles) west from the state capital Mumbai, falls within a protected reserve for big cats where four other fatal attacks have occurred in recent weeks.</p>.<p>The monks, in the area for an annual prayer conference, had ignored warnings from local officials about venturing too far into the forest, police said.</p>.<p>The attack followed a separate fatal incident on Monday, when shopkeeper Sandeep Arjun was killed outside his stall on the outskirts of the forest.</p>.<p>It was unclear whether the same leopard was responsible for both attacks.</p>.<p>Three more deaths attributed to leopards and tigers have been reported around the reserve in the past month, officials say.</p>.<p>Official estimates suggest there are between 12,000 and 14,000 leopards in India.</p>.<p>Urban expansion has reduced their numbers as forest habitats shrink, bringing them into closer contact -- and conflict -- with humans.</p>.<p>An estimated 431 leopards were killed in 2017, according to government figures. Most were killed by poachers for their hides and body parts.</p>.<p>There are no figures on the number of humans killed by leopards, but experts say there are hundreds of deaths each year.</p>
<p>A Buddhist monk has been killed by a leopard while meditating in a protected forest for the big cats, the fifth such attack in the area this month, Indian police said on Thursday.</p>.<p>Rahul Walke Bodhi was seated beneath a tree in Ramdegi forest in western India for morning prayers on Tuesday when the leopard pounced.</p>.<p>The 35-year-old monk was fatally injured, police in Maharashtra state said. Two other devotees meditating with him at the time escaped unscathed to alert police, who started a search for his body.</p>.<p>"His badly mauled body was found further into the forest, indicating the animal tried to drag it along," Krisna Tiwari, a senior police officer in the region, told AFP.</p>.<p>The forest, roughly 825 kilometres (510 miles) west from the state capital Mumbai, falls within a protected reserve for big cats where four other fatal attacks have occurred in recent weeks.</p>.<p>The monks, in the area for an annual prayer conference, had ignored warnings from local officials about venturing too far into the forest, police said.</p>.<p>The attack followed a separate fatal incident on Monday, when shopkeeper Sandeep Arjun was killed outside his stall on the outskirts of the forest.</p>.<p>It was unclear whether the same leopard was responsible for both attacks.</p>.<p>Three more deaths attributed to leopards and tigers have been reported around the reserve in the past month, officials say.</p>.<p>Official estimates suggest there are between 12,000 and 14,000 leopards in India.</p>.<p>Urban expansion has reduced their numbers as forest habitats shrink, bringing them into closer contact -- and conflict -- with humans.</p>.<p>An estimated 431 leopards were killed in 2017, according to government figures. Most were killed by poachers for their hides and body parts.</p>.<p>There are no figures on the number of humans killed by leopards, but experts say there are hundreds of deaths each year.</p>