Another leopard captured in Tirumala walkway

The leopard is the second one to be captured after a six-year-old girl was killed in leopard attack a week back. The first leopard was captured three days back.

Tirumala:Forest officials on Thursday captured a leopard from the Tirumala walkway in Andhra Pradesh. This was the second leopard that was captured from the area in the last three days. A total of three leopards have been trapped by forest officials in the last 50 days.

The incident comes a week after a six-year-old girl was killed in a leopard attack in Tirumala. According to forest officials, this leopard was caught around 500 metre away from the spot where a leopard had been caught on the wee hours of Monday. Cages were set up at three spots namely Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple, Mokali Mitta and the 35th turn atop the hill to trap the leopard. Among this, the leopard got trapped in the cage at Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple.

As per the protocol, after capturing the leopard, the animal will be quarantined for around 10 days at Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati and so it is being shifted there, officials said. After the six-year-old girl died in leopard attack, cameras were installed in many places in this area. A DNA analysis will be done to find out whether the tiger had consumed human flesh or not, officials added.

The leopard that was trapped three days back had also been moved to the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park. The report of the DNA analysis that was conducted on it is still awaited, an official said. "We are yet to take a call on when these leopards would be released into the forest," an official said.

The movement of leopards has left devotees, who come to the Srivari Temple in panic. Forest officials said that efforts are on to monitor movement of animals along the road leading to Tirumala.