Fifth leopard captured on Tirumala walkway

Tirupati district forest officer (DFO) A.Srinivasulu said the two-year-old sub-adult, a female, has been shifted to the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park (Tirupati Zoo) for quarantine.

Image used for representational purpose only.

TIRUPATI: The Andhra Pradesh Forest Department has captured another leopard, the fifth, in Tirumala, an official said on Thursday.

The leopard entered the trap at around 12.30 am and its capture was confirmed at 5.30 am on Thursday, said the official.

“We captured it between the seventh mile to Tirumala and Narasimha Swamy temple at the border which separates the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) and the forest,” Tirupati district forest officer (DFO) A.Srinivasulu told PTI.

Srinivasulu said the two-year-old sub-adult, a female, has been shifted to the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park (Tirupati Zoo) for quarantine. It will be subjected to tests and on confirmation that no traces of human flesh were found in it, the big cat will be released in a faraway woods.

Meanwhile, Srinivasulu said the department is yet to receive the results of the tests conducted on the leopards captured earlier to detect as to which one had killed a minor girl recently.

After zeroing in on the particular leopard, he said the department will permanently confine it to the zoo while the rest will be released in a faraway forest.

He said 330 camera traps were installed to detect the movement of these animals and they would be captured if found in the vicinity of the footpath route to Tirumala.

The Forest department official noted the department will stop setting up the traps for now but will continue monitoring the movement of wild animals to capture them with permission when sighted in surveillance cameras.

The efforts to capture the leopards come in the wake of attacks on devotees in the vicinity of the walkway to the Tirumala temple.

The DFO observed that this procedure will be followed for bears and other wild animals as well.