Udupi, Aug 7: A leopard fell into a trap kept for it at Pamboor in Padubelle village in Udupi district and it was later released into the forests of the Western Ghats on Tuesday.
Residents of Pamboor were complaining of sighting a leopard in their area for the last few days. The wild cat hunted and taken away a dog belonging to Bhaskar Shetty in the village recently. On receiving complaints from the people of the village, the staff of the Forest Department kept a cage with a dog as a bait albeit in another section of the cage, near the house of Florin Saldanha, on Monday morning.
The leopard which smelt the dog came in search of it only to get trapped in the cage in the night. The people who saw the leopard trapped in the cage informed the department staff early on Tuesday morning. The department staff reached the spot at around 8.30 a.m. They then carried the cage in a vehicle and later released the wild cat in the forests of the Western Ghats.
Range Forest Officer Cliffard Lobo said that it was a five-year-old male leopard. It had a minor bruise on its forehead. This might be because it might have struggled to get out of the cage. But it was healthy, he said.
According to Mr. Lobo, in the last one year, 10 or 11 leopards have been trapped and later released into the forests in the Udupi Range.
This was because land here was more suited for leopards as they could stay in the green shrubs and could not be noticed. The leopards mainly came to the villages in search of prey, especially dogs, he said.
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