Watch: Forest officials trap leopard in cage placed in ICRISAT campus; another still on the prowl

Forest officials shift it to Nehru Zoological Park; the animal to be released back into the wild after medical examination

Sangareddy: A leopard that had triggered panic on the campus of the International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, was trapped in a cage by Forest officials in the early hours of Thursday.

The leopard was trapped in less than 24 hours after the cage trap with two goats as baits were placed on the campus. The leopard is a five to six-year-old male and was healthy, said the Forest officials, who shifted it to the Nehru Zoological Park. After a medical examination, it would be released into the wild, they said.

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According to District Forest Officer (Sangareddy) Ch Sridhar Rao, the ICRISAT staff sighted the leopard about three days ago after which they used drone cameras to track its movement. Interestingly, he said they are said to have seen two leopards moving on the fields of ICRISAT. Following this, forest officials placed 30 camera traps to track their movement and three cage traps to capture them on Wednesday. They could capture one of them in less than 24 hours after the cages were placed, he said, adding that they had now changed the location of these camera traps and cage traps to the place where the second leopard was found moving.

This is not the first time that a leopard was sighted on the ICRISAT campus. Leopards were sighted in 2014 and 2019 as well. However, officials had to wait for a few months to trap the felines then. Since another leopard was on the prowl in the campus, Forest officials have put ICRISAT staff on high alert besides tracking its movement.

The officials said they had never found two leopards moving so closely so far. There was abundant prey available inside the campus, ranging from wild boars, wild hares, mongoose, porcupines, peacocks, reptiles and many other birds, they said.