Man-animal conflict to fore again near Sangareddy

A leopard has been sighted at Kadpal village of Sirgapur mandal in Sangareddy district

Sangareddy: Man-animal conflict again came to the fore when a leopard killed a calf at Kadpal village of Sirgapur mandal in Sangareddy district on Monday night. Earlier, a shepherd had also sighted the leopard on a rock in the forest area and shared photographs of the animal he had shot on his mobile phone with the officials. The shepherd informed the officials that he had also sighted a couple of cubs with the female leopard.

To monitor the movement of the leopard, the Forest Authorities have placed eight camera traps at different places along with the fringe villages of Kadpal, Raparthi, Nagdhar and Sanjeevaraopet forest blocks, spread in 8,000 acres of Narayankhed forest range. The movement of one leopard was captured in a trap placed close to Kadpal on Tuesday night. However, no cubs were captured in the camera trap. Further, the forest officials could not identify the gender of the leopard captured in the trap.

---

Speaking to Telangana Today, Forest Range Officer Narayankhed Kethavath Devilal said that they have put the farmers living along the forest fringe of these four blocks on high alert.

However, the FRO said that the farmer Guruprasad, whose calf was killed, had built his cattle shed very close to the forest area which resulted in the incident. Saying that there were enough prey bases in the forest blocks, he said that there were spotted deers, blackbucks, wild-boars, porcupines, wild-hares and others were found abundantly in the forest area while the leopard is the only predator. Since there was an abundant prey base, water and it is also considered a safe habitation, Devilal said that the leopard will not stray out of the forest area quite often.

Meanwhile, the forest officials had presented Rs 8,000 compensation to the farmer Guruprasad, whose calf was killed. MLA Mahareddy Bhupal Reddy handed over the amount to the farmer on Wednesday. However, the farmers, who are living along the forest fringe in Kalher and Sirgapur Mandals, were terrified after the leopard was sighted. The farmers, particularly cattle herders are frightening to enter the forest area following the incident. The farmers have urged the forest officials to capture the leopard and release it deep into the forest area. While the misinformation spreaders took to social media, sharing posts of multiple sightings of leopards in the area. Devilal has warned such misinformation spreaders of strict action.

Meanwhile, some unidentified miscreants have stolen two out of eight camera traps placed along the forest on Wednesday night. The incident left them in shock as civilians have no use with camera traps. Saying that they had placed eight camera traps to monitor the movement of leopards, the FRO said that they found a couple of them missing on Thursday morning.