Hyderabad: Leopard trapped

Hyderabad: A full-grown eight-year-old male leopard that had strayed into the Patancheru campus of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) four months ago was captured by a team of forest department officials on Tuesday night.

After being rescued, the leopard was sent to the Nehru Zoological Park for preliminary inspection where veterinary doctors declared it uninjured and healthy.

“After a thorough medical inspection, the big cat will be kept in observation for one or two days and subsequently it will be translocated into the deep woods of the Amrabad Tiger Reserve, Mahbubnagar, adhering to laid down procedures,” said B. Srikanth of the Nehru Zoological Park.

Forest department officials have been trying to catch the leopard for the last four months.

The leopard which may have lost its way entered the Icrisat campus on March 6.

“A team of four to six forest department officials continuously monitored the movement of the big cat. The animal came near the cage several times but never entered it. So, we replaced the iron cage with a fibre one as iron is uninviting,” said a forest department official.

Some 40 cameras and four trap cages were installed at different locations where the prowling leopard was suspected to be hiding.

Forest officials suspect that the leopard could have strayed from the Medak forest.

Although the animal didn’t pose any threat to human life, this news came as a big relief for Icrisat officials who lived in the Patancheru campus.

Wildlife scientist Dr Krishnendu Mondal said, “Leopards possess a unique ability to survive in any terrain, climate, and type of forest. As the forest cover is reducing day by day, we end up seeing incidences of leopards straying into human settlements.”