Operation Leopard: Another big cat caught in Tirumala, 4 captured so far

Tirupati: In the wake of wild animal attacks on children in Tirumala, the forest department captured a fourth leopard in the early morning of Monday. The officials are checking if it is the same leopard that killed a minor girl recently on the Alipiri footpath in the temple town.

The male leopard, estimated to be around five years old, was captured at the seventh mile near Anjaneya Swamy statue around 4 am. The forest department moved the leopard to the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati.

According to Tirupati district forest officer (DFO) A Srinivasulu, this leopard had been eluding capture since August 17. He said that the animal had come near the trap before but would leave as it had seen the other leopards getting captured. So, we adopted other strategies to trap it, he said.

“We deactivated flashes from cameras, and sprayed animal scents to remove all human smell near the trap site,” he said.

Captured leopards might be siblings

Two weeks ago, three leopards were captured, which were of the same age. Forest officials suspect that they were siblings from the same mother.

On August 12, a six-year-old girl died from a leopard attack after she went missing on the pedestrian route. The incident occurred when a family from Nellore district was walking on the Alipiri-Tirumala pedestrian route on Friday afternoon.

The six-year-old, who was accompanying her father Dinesh and mother Sasikala, was found dead on Saturday early morning with animal attack injuries on her body near Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple area.

The officials are yet to get DNA and other analysis reports of the leopards that were captured soon after the killing of six-year-old to ascertain which one of them had killed the girl. The samples of the leopard caught on Monday would also be sent to the lab.

Seshachalam — a home for leopards and bears

The Eastern Ghats and the Seshachalam forest near Tirupati are home to many leopards and bears. However, this is probably the first death by an animal attack in Tirumala. Earlier, too, there were animal attacks, but no deaths were reported.

A similar incident happened on June 24, 2022, when a three-year-old boy was attacked and dragged by a leopard near the seventh mile along the Alipiri-Tirumala pedestrian route. Fortunately, the boy was saved, thanks to the prompt action of the TTD personnel.

These are the measures taken by TTD in light of these attacks:

Parents trekking with children below 12 years will be only allowed from 5 am to 2 pm.

Tags were given to children to keep track of them.

The elderly will be allowed to trek only till 10 pm.

Feeding of deer or any animals on the pedestrian routes is banned.

Strict action will be taken against the food vendors across the pedestrian stretch if they throw away leftovers in the forest area.

TTD decided to install 500 cameras across the pedestrian stretch, and drones will be used if necessary.

Display boards and videos on animal attack awareness will be setup at Gali Gopuram, seventh mile and Alipiri areas.

Wildlife outposts, including doctors and animal trackers, will be deployed 24/7.

Focusing lights will be set up across the pedestrian stretch during the night.

Pilgrims will be armed with wooden sticks to protect themselves.