Residents of Mallarlapalle village of Irala mandal were a terrified lot on Tuesday morning, when they reportedly spotted a family of three leopards in the bushes close to a cattle farm.
As the spot is six km away from the reserved forest in the mandal, the phenomenon made a rare spectacle for the villagers.
According to information, farmers moving in the area heard the growls of leopards, and ran helter-skelter finding them a few metres away.
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Huge crowd
Soon, a huge crowd gathered at the spot, prompting two leopards (believed to be a female and a sub-adult cub) to run into the fields and disappear in the forest.
As the lone full-grown leopard remained there moaning and growling, the villagers realised that it was caught in a trap meant for wild boars.
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In the afternoon, a team of forest officials led by Divisional Forest Officer (Chittoor-West) T. Chakrapani reached the spot and found that the animal was caught in the snare.
He informed the authorities of the S.V. Zoo Park in Tirupati, and a team arrived there around 4 p.m. with a tranquilliser and a cage. After a half-an-hour operation, the leopard, identified as a male of about 7 years, was darted with a tranquilliser. The animal was later lifted into a cage and shifted to the zoo park in Tirupati.
The DFO said the animal was healthy and might be released back into the reserve forest after treatment. He said the observations of the villagers that there were two more leopards at the scene might not be true.