Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)
Puttur, Nov 24: Surprisingly, a leopard got caught in a trap laid by a farmer for wild boar. The incident occurred at Malettody in Koltige village near Savanur in the taluk on Wednesday November 23.
When Madhu Kedilaya, son of Balakrishna Kedilaya from Malettody went to the farm for irrigating it, he saw that the leopard had got ensnared in the farm. He immediately conveyed information to police and forest department officials. The leopard, which had got stuck in the morning, was finally caged by officials at 5.30 pm.
Although anesthetist of Pilikula Nisargadhama, Dr Deepika, and assistant, Dinesh, had tried to anesthetize the animal, they had not succeeded. At around 3 pm, assistant in the national park at Hunsur, Karumbaiah, tasted success in administering the injection to the animal and then putting it inside the cage.
In the recent past, paw marks of leopard had been noticed near the health centre at Manjunathanagar, Paltady. Cattle and dogs had gone missing from Kaputha forest in the region. Locals had sighted wild animals like wild buffaloes, wild boars, antelopes, deer etc but leopard had never appeared in the region. The locals now believe that there are more leopards in the region.
Police and forest officials had a hard time controlling a mob of over 500 eager onlookers who had assembled at the spot. Bellare police sub-inspector, M V Cheluvaiah, supervised the law and order situation.
Assistant conservator of forests, Sundar Shetty, range forest officer from here, Kariappa, and other officials were involved with the operation.