A thickly-populated residential area here remained panic-stricken for around eight hours after a leopard was spotted near a railway track on Sunday afternoon. It was tranquilized late in the day by the Forest Department’s veterinarian and captured.
The leopard was spotted in an area with undergrowth near the railway gate at Anayidukku around 3 p.m. The animal strayed into the track and later hid in a shrubbery near the backyard of a house located below the railway track at Thayatheru, hardly a kilometre from the Kannur railway station. Local people said three youths, including a migrant worker, were injured in the animal’s attack.
Forest and police personnel isolated the area by erecting nets around it so that the leopard would not escape. Arun Zakharia, veterinary surgeon with the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, fired the tranquilizer dart around 10.45 p.m. The sedated leopard remained in the undergrowth and was shifted to a cage.
Earlier, the Collector clamped prohibitory orders in the area to clear the crowd and the police issued warnings through the public sound system of a local mosque.
