Leopard strikes Telangana village 2nd night in a row

HYDERABAD: Less than ten kilometres from the proposed site of Hyderabad Pharma City, a leopard made its presence felt for a second night in a row in Kothapally village of Yacharam Mandal in Rangareddy district, throwing the entire village into a tizzy.

The presence of the leopard, a schedule-I species under Wildlife Protection Act, adds weight to concerns raised by environmentalists that Pharma City may threaten the ecology of three reserved forests that abut the pharmaceutical industrial cluster and ten reserved forests located in a 10 km radius.

The incident that came to light on Thursday morning when Chikkudu Venkataiah of the village discovered his goat had an injury on its neck and observed pug marks outside his goat shed. On Wednesday night, two goats were killed not very far from Venkataiah’s.

Though it was initially suspected that the pawprints belonged to a hyena, Forest Department officials on Thursday confirmed that the predatory animal was indeed a leopard.

Speaking to Express, Forest Range Officer of Kandukur G Satyanarayana said the same animal had attacked goats on Wednesday night too. He added that anyone who lost their cattle to wild animals would be compensated.  

Yacharam mandal has many reserved forests in and around it, some of which are huge like Kadthal RF spread over 800 hectares and Mudhivennu RF spread over 3,900 hectares.

While the Environment Impact Assessment report of Pharma City contends that reserved forests around the proposed industrial cluster are “degraded”, the presence of a leopard says otherwise.In fact, forest officials said that last year there was leopard sighting in Thadiparthy, one of the villages where the State government plans to acquire land for Pharma City.