Three-year-old snared leopardess enters Mysuru, dies

MYSURU: A seriously injured leopardess, with a snare around its neck, surfaced in Kyathanahalli on the outskirts of Mysuru on Friday morning and died on the way to the zoo hospital later in the day.
Forest department sources said the big cat, about three years old, had maggots on the neck and the left hind limb. The animal is suspected to have starved for over three weeks before giving up its fight for survival.
A snare indicates poaching activity in Kyathanahalli that abuts both Bandipur and Nagarahole tiger sanctuaries. The snare had left a deep wound on the neck, leading to sepsis and making it difficult for the animal to consume or swallow food. This was the second time in a week that the big cat appeared in the area. Villagers said the leopardess, in its first outing early this week, had killed an animal but didn't consume the meat possibly because of the deep neck injury it had sustained.
On Friday morning, the injured cat returned to the village ambling through its bylanes. That was when villagers raised an alarm. Startled, the animal sneaked into a house, forcing its occupants to run for cover. After the villagers locked up the house, the cat moved into a cowshed.
It was around 10am that the villagers informed the forest department about the presence of the leopardess. Mysuru district wildlife warden Krithika Alanahalli said she was captured in a four-hour operation.
Unaware that the cat had been laid low by an injury and that it couldn't possibly escape, forest officers set up an elaborate trap, blocked all exit points and moved a cage close to the animal. Foresters summoned Dr DN Nagaraj, a vet with expertise in nabbing cats, and mahout Akram Pasha, a marksman. Pasha climbed up the roof and shot a tranquillizer into the animal, which showed least resistance.
Only after the tranquilization did the officials learn about the snare. Forest staffers removed it in a quick operation. The animal looked emaciated, not having had food for close to three weeks. The leopardess died on the way to Mysuru Zoo health facility, 30km away.