It was seen in the viral video of the leopard that it neither roared nor attacked anyone. The villagers were treating the leopard like a cow’s calf. Such cases were seen in neurological disorders when the animal forgets its identity, the veterinary doctor said.
This marks the fourth big cat that has been captured since the beginning of ‘Operation Leopard’, which began earlier this month and was initiated after several leopards were sighted on the walkway to the hilltop temple.
In the wake of rising leopard attack incidents in the sacred town, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) and Forest departments are mulling over setting up a fence on a permanent basis.
One more leopard was caught at Tirumala Footway. This is the third leopard to be caught in 50 days in Tirupathi and the second one from Tirumala after a six-year-old girl named Lakshitha was killed in a leopard attack last week.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized four leopard skins and apprehended eight people from Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir involved in the illegal wildlife trade, said DRI officials on Sunday.
The snow leopard, Zima, at the age of 13 years and three months, became the oldest snow leopard to have given birth in the last three decades of the snow leopard conservation breeding programme at Darjeeling Zoo, said authorities.
“Madhya Pradesh has immense reserves of forest, mineral and water resources. It shares 13 percent of the country's forests.Dense forests are continuously increasing. Madhya Pradesh is a Tiger State. We are also a Leopard and Alligator State,” CM Chouan said.
The CCTV footage showed that a leopard slowly sneaked into the lawn area of a residence and tried to attack the dog sleeping outside the main door of the house. However, another dog woke up and started barking at the leopard and both the dogs chased the wild cat away.
The Cine Workers Association has expressed anger over the incident, even as a video showing the large cat's entry into the film city is making the rounds on the internet.
Baripada forest rangers and DD STR South has arrested three persons and seized four leopard hides and three mobile phones near Bahalda Village in Baripada Forest Division, officials said.