Relentless combing and tracking operations for nearly seven weeks have resulted in the leopard suspected to have killed two students being captured and caged at T. Narsipur on Friday.
The news came as a relief to both Forest Department staff — about 120 of whom were tracking the leopard since November 1 — and the local villagers who were living in anxiety following two deaths that were attributed to leopard attacks.
The first victim was Manjunath, a student of Maharaja’s College in Mysuru. He died due to injuries inflicted by the leopard when he was returning from Mallikarjunaswami temple near M.L. Hundi on October 31.
Meghana, who was a student of Government First Grade College at T. Narsipur, died in a leopard attack on December 1 at Kebbehundi and it was speculated that the same leopard was responsible for both the human deaths.
Chief Conservator of Forests Mysuru Circle M. Malathi Priya said the leopard had been shifted to Bannerghatta Zoological Park, Bengaluru. She said it was trapped very close to the place where the first death took place and was almost 4 km from the spot where the leopard claimed its second human victim.
She said the leopard, aged around seven, was a male and was trapped in one of the large cages measuring around 10 ft x 15 ft that was placed in a bid to lure it with a bait. Once it was captured, it was tranquillized and shifted to a smaller cage for transportation to Bannerghatta, said Ms. Malathi Priya.
Deputy Conservator of Forests of Mysuru Kamala Karikalan said the leopard’s capture marks the end of combing operations that lasted seven weeks. In all, 37 camera traps were set up in a bid to ascertain the identity of the leopard and the exercise yielded 10 to 12 images. The entire hillock around M.L. Hundi was completely scoured for days on end besides waiting for the animal at night.
As many as 18 cages were placed in different parts of the taluk from where leopards were being sighted while four cages were placed on the hillock alone, said Ms. Karikalan. “Despite various strategies adopted by the Forest Department staff, the leopard turned out to be fleet-footed and used to give us a slip,” she added.
The spots on the captured leopard match those in the camera traps images. The operation also entailed foot combing by special tiger force personnel from Bandipur besides deploying drone to ascertain its movements but the leopard used to be a step ahead of the trackers and evaded them for long.
Notwithstanding the capture, the cages will be kept where ever they have been placed at present. In addition, three new cages have been procured for use in T. Narsipur and will be placed in areas where leopard sightings are reported in a bid to allay the fears of the local community.
