: A leopard was trapped inside the Kodanadu estate near Kotagiri. Following the reported sighting of a carnivore with its cub in the estate, which is used by the former Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, as a camp office during her visits to The Nilgiris, and the killing of a goat, a cow and a buffalo, the forest department placed three hi-tech cages with live baits in the estate and deployed about 30 forest personnel to monitor the situation.
In the early hours of Thursday, a female leopard, aged about four, walked into one of the cages.
It was tranquillised by a team of veterinarians and released into a forest near Upper Bhavani.
Forest Department sources said it was an ideal place to translocate the carnivore as the forest was dense and the prey base was good. Since some of the villagers had claimed that they had seen a tiger with a cub in the estate, the area would be monitored.
