Unidentified animal spreads fear

Erode: Residents of Thandampalayam near Sivagiri here said an animal, which they suspect to be a leopard, was roaming around their village at night and urged both the district administration and the forest department to take steps to chase the animal into the reserve forest at the earliest.
Talking to TOI, P Anitha, 35, one of the villagers, said the animal chased her while she was returning home from Sivagiri with her daughter Yazhini, 10, on their scooter on Sunday night. “It looked like a leopard. I managed to escape from the animal.”
V Dhandapan, 58, Nallakatti amman temple priest, said he sighted the animal on the temple premises on Sunday night. “Several devotees offer goats and chicks to the deity and the animal seems to have strayed into the temple to taste blood. The temple authorities have now installed CCTV cameras on the temple premises.”
Forest officials visited the temple on Wednesday and scrutinized the CCTV footage. “There was no sign of the animal in the past two days. We have deployed anti-poaching staff and forest guards in the village to monitor the movement of the animal,” an officials said.