People of Sushilnagar and surrounding places in Sandur taluk of the district are spending sleepless nights, with a man-eater leopard that has killed two persons in a fortnight at Sushilnagar, still on the prowl.
Meanwhile, the Forest Department, which has already taken a decision to shoot the wild cat, is striving hard to spot the man-eater and tranquillise or kill it.
Four teams, with armed men, including G. Susheel from Bengaluru, especially deputed to shoot the leopard, have been patrolling the areas continuously for the past 48 hours but without luck.
“We are trying our best to trap the leopard. We have stepped up the patrol and would trap or kill it,” Takatsingh Ranawat, Deputy Conservator of Forests, who is monitoring the operation, told The Hindu .
Previous attacks
Prakash Naik (14) was mauled by a leopard near Sushilnagar while he went to supervise the grazing cattle on October 25. His face had been disfigured beyond recognition.
This was the second such incident in the past fortnight. Earlier, on October 12, Mahabu Sab (54) was killed after being attacked by a leopard near the same village while returning from his fields.
Agitated by the attacks, people in Sushilnagar staged protest demonstrations and blocked the Hosapete-Sandur Road, affecting the movement of vehicles on Sunday.
After that, the Forest Department had set up cages in four different directions and succeeded in trapping a leopard. However, the villagers said it was not the man-eater, and urged the department officials to trap the accused animal expeditiously.
Later, apart from placing cages, the department had also kept two live baits to attract the leopard.
However, the leopard killed the live baits and fled the scene even before the patrolling team arrived on the spot on Wednesday night.
Though 12 deaths have occurred due to man-animal conflict in the past decade, only two persons have been killed by leopard, while the rest were killed by other wild animals, mostly sloth bears.
Compensation
The department would be paying Rs. 5 lakh as compensation to the families of those killed by wild animals.
