A farmer and two Forest Department personnel were injured when a leopard, which was reportedly under stress, attacked them near Balpa village of Sullia taluk on Thursday.
According to Dakshina Kannada Deputy Conservator of Forests V. Karikalan, the leopard got entangled in a net placed near a farm in the village on Thursday morning.
A team of Forest Department personnel rushed to the farm. When the personnel were a few metres away from the net, the leopard managed free itself from the net, and escaped.
Around this time, 70-year-old farmer Balakrishna Gowda had come to pluck grass for his cattle.
The leopard hit him on his face, ran away, and took shelter in a bush near a government school in the village.
A team of department personnel, led by the Assistant Conservator of Forests from Panja Forest Range, Austin, went near the school, where people had gathered. After sending the people and the students away from the school, Mr. Austin and his team went towards the bush to catch the leopard.
The leopard then jumped and Mr. Austin fell on the ground. It bit Mr. Austin’s hand and also hit a forest guard’s hand before running away.
Mr. Karikalan said a few baits have been laid to catch the leopard.
Mr. Gowda was undergoing treatment at the Government Wenlock Hospital in the city. Mr. Austin and the forest guard were treated in a hospital in Sullia, he said.
