HYDERABAD: A leopard, which had been giving sleepless nights to the residents of Chinna Shankarampet in Medak district, was captured late Saturday night. The captured leopard was sent to the Kakatiya Zoological Park in Warangal for further observation.
Forest officials who captured the cat said they had received several complaints from farmers in the area whose cattle and goats had fallen prey to the leopard.
“Farmers told us that they were scared for their lives, because of the wild cat. When we caught the animal, we saw that it was a young one as it was only about one-and-a-half year old. We shifted it to the Kakatiya Zoo, where it will be kept under observation,” Gnyaneshwar G, district forest officer (DFO), Medak, told this correspondent.
He further added that the animal was not injured during its capture, but it would still require some amount of observation to decide whether it could be released into the wild again.
“This particular animal was sighted in the area quite a number of times as it lived in the caves of Nemaligutta, which is across the farmers’ fields. It lived there with two more leopards. They come out of the cave only for food and water. We have kept all the saucer pits full and it has rained copiously. So, we can assume that it came out for food. Now, since this is a young one, we will keep it in the zoo for a month or two and see if it has the capabilities to hunt and fend for itself,” he said.
If it is capable of fending for itself, it would be sent and released in the Kawal Tiger Reserve area, where the scope for man-animal conflict is minimal.
