Kundapur: After death of 10 calves, forest dept catches a leopard

Udupi, Apr 6: A leopard, which had attacked a calf a couple of days ago at Heskethur village of Kundapur taluk in Udupi district, was trapped by the Forest Department on Friday.

The department kept a cage to trap the leopard with a dog as bait in a separate compartment of the cage. The leopard got trapped at around 2 a.m. The department staff then took away the cage from the village at around 7 a.m.

Prabhakar Kulal, Range Forest Officer, Kundapur Range, said that it was a six-year-old healthy leopard. The wild cat was later released in the forests of the Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary, he said.

There were complaints of about 10 calves being eaten by the leopards in the villages of Kedur, Heskethur, Japti and Korgi for the last two months. Some people had also complained that they had seen a couple of leopards roaming in these areas. These leopards were roaming in the shrubs around.

“This could also be because of an increase in the number of leopards,” Mr. Kulal said.

There was a complaint of a goat being carried away by leopard at Kattgeri hamlet on March 3. The Department had kept a cage to trap the leopard at Kattgeri on March 4, he said.