The panther, which remained elusive for over a week inspite of best efforts of forest officials to capture it, was finally captured in a trap set up half way on the footpath leading to Tirumala in the wee hours of Saturday.
The capture of the panther is expected to bring respite to devotees trekking from Tirupati to Tirumala and the management of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD). The panther had caused terror on the Tirumala footpath during the past two weeks injuring two girls besides giving sleepless nights to wild life authorities.
The authorities immediately shifted the panther to the Sri Venkateswara Zoological park at Tirupati even as hundreds of onlookers gathered at the spot to see the beast. The panic stricken beast was tranquilised before being shifted in a cage to Tirupati where a team of veterinary doctors were kept ready.
The wild life authorities were overwhelmed on capturing the panther. They said that once the medical examination was completed, steps would be to relocate (rehabilitate) it to a safer place. The Chief Wild Life Warden would take a final decision. The big cat, in all likelihood, may be shifted to the thick forests in the Srisailam wildlife sanctury. To a question, officials said they were making efforts to trap another panther which they believe is a cub.
TTD Divisional Forest officer K. Pradeep said that they had installed infra-red cameras at vital points where the cage traps are being set up and sounded optimistic that more information regarding the wild beast and its movement will be made available after going through the recordings. He ruled out the chances of the panther turning into a man eater and confirmed that the captured panther was a ‘female'.
