Forest officers to now capture leopard preying on livestock

ERODE: Thalavady forest range officers have placed cages and camera traps in the tribal hamlet of Malkoti Puram Thotti in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) to catch the leopard that has been roaming around the area for more than eight months, preying on sheep, goats and cows.
According to P Krishnappa, one of the villagers, the leopard usually comes out of STR at night."It killed four goats that I was rearing two months ago. Like me, several villagers have lost their goats, sheep and cows to the leopard."
When the villagers urged the forest officers to capture the leopard at the earliest, the latter shot off a letter to the state government, seeking permission to catch the leopard.
S Sathish, forest range officer, Thalavady, said, "Now, we got permission from the government. We have placed cages at the places through which the leopard comes out of the forest frequently. We have also installed cameras to track its movement."
A team of forest guards, watchers, anti-poaching staff has also been deployed in the tribal hamlet to monitor the leopard movement.