Kothapally tense as leopard pays 3rd visit in 4 days

HYDERABAD: Early morning Saturday, B Venkataiah came out of his house to find one of his goats dead with its gut torn open, flesh partly eaten and bite marks on its neck. The goat was tied tightly to a shed, making it difficult for the leopard to drag the goat away after making the kill. With the leopard making its presence felt in the village for the third time in four days (a goat’s carcass was discovered on Wednesday morning, while another was found injured with bite marks around its neck on Thursday), fear has gripped the residents of Kothapally village in Yacharam mandal of Rangareddy.

After the incident came to light on Saturday, officials of the forest department analysed the pugmarks found near the spot where the goat was killed and came to the conclusion that they belonged to a female leopard. The pugmarks were also traced to a nearby hillock which is said to house caves that could provide a good shelter to the leopard. 

Kandukur Forest Range Officer G Satyanarayana said, “We have already installed four cameras with motion sensors at strategic locations to help capture images of the animal. Also, the Hyderabad zoo has been asked to supply two cages, which will be deployed to trap the leopard.” He added that a few officials would camp in the village at night.  “We are scared to stay out at night, but cannot afford to lose anymore of our cattle. We have planned to light a bonfire and sit outside the house in groups of 3-4 to keep vigil so that the leopard does not attack our cattle again,” said Venkataiah’s son Ashok.

The man-animal conflict 

The three leopard-attacks over the past four days at Kothapally is hardly a coincidence. Rather, such man-animal conflicts are often the direct result of human actions. The destruction of the leopard habitat in Yacharam is an open secret. The landscape in Yacharam is dominated with small rocky hillocks, an important refuge for the leopards. Most of the granite boulder hillocks are however being destroyed either for real estate or powdered by stone crushers. Forest officials say that leopard movement has always been known in these forests. However, with the announcement of the Pharma City project to be spread over 19,333 acres, environmentalists are concerned that the habitat might be endangered further