A 6-year-old female leopard was tranquilised and captured by the Forest Department personnel near Halanuru village in Tumakuru taluk on Wednesday.
The people of Halanuru informed the Forest Department that a leopard was hiding near a bridge around 10 a.m. The department personnel rushed to the spot and blocked both the sides of the bridge and a veterinary doctor tranquilised the animal around 12.30 p.m. It was then shifted to a cage.
Deputy Conservator of Forests Girish said it is one of the suspects whose image was found in the camera traps in the vicinity of the villages where four people including two children were killed in leopard attacks since October 2019.
Four leopards traced
Mr. Girsh said that though we could not identify the man-eater leopard, we have identified four leopards which were sighted very frequently in that area and their images were captured in the camera traps placed in that area.
He said as no images of leopard attacking humans were captured in the camera traps, it is not possible to identify the killer-leopard. “But we are planning to capture all the four leopards which were frequently sighted in that area based on the ‘rosettes’ on their bodies.
With the help of four tamed elephants, the Forest Department personnel are carrying out combing operations to capture the leopard which is attacking and killing people.
They are also using the drone of the Police department for the purpose.
A drone will be designed as per the requirements of the Forest departmentby a drone expert in Tumakuru, Drone Pratap.
He said one of the four leopards was found on Thursday while carrying the combing operation using the elephant. By the time the doctor tried to shoot the dart, the animal escaped without giving them any chance to tranquilize it.
Four cases
Lakshmamma (60) of Bannikuppe village was found dead on October 17, 2019. Anandaiah (58) of Doddmaralavadi, which is neighbouring Bannikuppe, died in a leopard attack on November 29. Samarth Gowda (5) was killed in a leopard attack in Manikuppe village in Gubbi taluk of Tumakuru district on January 10, 2020. Chandana (3) was killed in a leopard attack in Baichenahalli while she was playing on February 29, 2020.
Manohar sustained injuries on one of his shoulders in a leopard attack on March 10, 2020 near Olakal in Tumakuru taluk.
