The 4.5 years old male leopard was tranquillised out of its refuge in a car shed behind school campus of the Tirupattur town on Saturday early morning, relieving the locals. This fugitive was later released into Kothur reserve forest early morning on Saturday, June 15.
It is a three-year-old male leopard that has been doped down from his hideout inside a car shed near the back side of Collectorate office at Veera Sivaganga Halli corner in Tirupattur town to be safely released deep inside Kothur RF some 20 kms away from it providing relief to residents who had besieged their houses.
According to the forest officials, the elusive predator’s ten hour operation ended successfully with releasing the animal safely in its natural habitat at around 6 am on Saturday. “After many years, we have witnessed leopard intrusion into human habitation in Tirupattur. The reasons for this animal to go beyond its natural environment will be investigated further”, unveiled M.Mahendran, District Forest Officer (DFO), Tirupattur district speaking.
In tranquilizing the animal there were involved such people as 30-strong Animal Rescue Team from Hosur led by veterinarian K.Sukumar and another thirty people who were either from Tirupattur or Natrampalli, Gudiyatham, Pernambut and Odukkathur police officers along with revenue personnel also took part in this operation.
But before they did so they created a cordon extending around where it was huddled up within an automobile garage which was surrounded by nylon nets. Meanwhile five persons were rescued late Friday night by means of transport traps when two cars became locked up inside the shed pending sedation of the big cat.“Safety first for humans and then we can think about rescuing wildlife. The entire operation succeeded since these two objectives were achieved,” he said.
Mr. Tharpagaraj, the collector of Tirupattur led the operation while it was also monitored by DFO Mr. Mahendran, Tirupattur SP Albert John and S.Padma Conservator of Forests In-Charge (Vellore Circle) and K.R.Cholarajan forest range officer (Tirupattur). The leopard was finally tranquillised around 2.30 a.m. Thereafter, it was observed before being released in the wild.
The incident happened at about 3:30pm on Friday when a painter aged 70 years old named S.Gopal who had been working in one of the schools fled and was attacked by the leopard.
It was said that Kothur RF might have been entered by this leopard into town unlike Nagalathur RF which is closer to town where leopards were previously seen sometime back in Kothur RF forming part of Jawadhu Hills’ Biodiversity Reserve Forests. Moreover, some weeks ago there were mysterious deaths of several goats implying that they could be victims to a prowling predator.
